Australia's Woodside files for Calif. LNG project
Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:20pm ET
today.reuters.com
LOS ANGELES, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) of Australia said on Friday it has filed for permits to build an offshore liquefied natural gas terminal and dual undersea pipelines to bring the natural gas to shore near the Los Angeles International Airport.
If the terminal is approved, it will import LNG from deepwater fields off Australia's northwest coast and could open as early as 2010 or 2011 and import up to 1.2 billion cubic feet per day, on an average annualized basis.
Woodside spokesman Michael Hinrichs said the company was not saying when the project, called OceanWay, would open or how long the permitting process is expected to take, saying there were too many variables.
Woodside filed with the U.S. Coast Guard for a deepwater port license and with the city of Los Angeles for a natural gas pipeline franchise.
Woodside plans to place two underwater buoys and about 28 miles of underwater pipeline to come ashore near LAX.
Woodside will construct two regasification LNG carriers which will meet LNG tankers after they have crossed the Pacific Ocean. The Woodside tankers will convert the supercooled LNG to natural gas and put the gas in the pipeline, which will hook up to the Southern California Gas pipeline. So Cal Gas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (SRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research).
California consumes about 6.4 billion cubic feet (192 million cubic meters) a day of gas, with half of that used as fuel to fire power plants.
Gas demand in California is expected to rise 0.7 percent annually in the next 10 years, the state's energy commission says.
LNG is natural gas that is cooled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, turns to liquid and shrinks to 1/600th volume of its gaseous state.
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