ExxonMobil slows effort to build LNG terminal on Mobile Bay
Associated Press
miami.com
MOBILE, Ala. - ExxonMobil Corp., which has disputed industry reports that it is losing interest in building a liquefied natural gas terminal on Hollinger's Island, says it is cutting back its efforts at the site.
"We're reducing the level of activity at the site consistent with our business's needs and the need to get community support," ExxonMobil spokesman Bob Davis confirmed Tuesday.
ExxonMobil has a $38 million option agreement with the Alabama State Port Authority on 200 acres at the former U.S. Navy home port.
The $600 million terminal would sit near a residential area and an elementary school about two miles south of Mobile's city limits. Gov. Bob Riley has said he would not ratify a land sale without an independent study of safety issues surrounding the project.
Riley said ExxonMobil officials called him Monday to tell him of their decision. Alabama State Port Authority Chairman Tim Parker and State Docks Director James Lyons each said ExxonMobil told them it intends to make a scheduled $1.4 million payment to the authority by the time it's due next month.
The governor, who was in Mobile on Tuesday, continued to encourage local officials to conduct an independent safety study of the terminal and LNG shipping.
Riley toured Docks properties, including the Hollinger's Island acreage, and attended the authority's regular meeting. He told the board that Mobile Bay will not be the initial U.S. entry point for $12 billion in shipments of LNG that ExxonMobil is under contract to import from the Middle East state of Qatar.
ExxonMobil officials have said for months that the company is on a tight schedule to build Gulf Coast LNG terminals that will offload superchilled gas from tankers, rewarm it and inject it into the nation's pipeline system.
Davis would not confirm whether the Hollinger's Island site could be ready in time to handle its Qatar shipments, which are scheduled to begin arriving by early 2009.
Information from: The Mobile Register |
