Mitsubishi to file Jan. 23 for Calif. LNG terminal
Reuters, 01.12.04, 7:11 PM ET
forbes.com
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A Mitsubishi Corp. <8058.T> unit on Monday said it plans to file an application on Jan. 23 with U.S. energy regulators to build California's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal aimed at meeting increased energy demand.
Tom Giles, a spokesman for Mitsubishi's Long Beach, California-based Sound Energy Solutions (SES), said the company was ready to make the filing for a $400 million terminal, scheduled to begin operating in 2008, after discussing its plans with various state agencies.
SES will make its filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which must approve all onshore U.S. LNG projects.
LNG is super-cooled gas delivered on tankers to regasification terminals where the gas is fed into pipelines for delivery to power plants and industrial sites.
SES's LNG application is one of a handful already before federal regulators as energy companies race to build LNG terminals to help plug a growing supply and demand gap caused by declining U.S. gas output and increased demand.
Giles said he believed SES's proposal was the first of four proposed for onshore and offshore California to make it to the application stage.
The SES terminal, to be built at the Port of Long Beach, one of the world's busiest, could take deliveries of LNG from Asia - the world's biggest LNG market - Russia, South America and Alaska, where LNG has been exported to Asia for four decades.
The SES facility would provide California with 700 million cubic feet to 1 billion cubic feet of gas capacity per day, about 10 percent of California's current daily demand.
Around 35 North American LNG terminals have been proposed over the past three years to bring imports to a market plagued by high gas prices.
Energy analysts say up to eight new U.S. terminals - including two approved last year - are likely to be built over the next 10-15 years.
The two terminals approved in 2003 were the first signed-off by regulators in more than two decades during which low U.S. gas prices made LNG imports uneconomical.
Four existing U.S. LNG terminals operate at the moment, meeting about 2 percent of overall U.S. gas demand, though analysts say LNG could meet 15-20 percent of U.S. gas use by 2020.
Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service |
