Houston firm eyes 1 Bcf/d LNG terminal along Texas' Gulf coast
Houston (Platts)--6Jan2005
platts.com
Calhoun LNG, a small Houston-based company, has secured an option to lease a
150-acre site in an industrial area in Port Lavaca along the Texas Gulf
Coast's Matagorda Ship Channel and plans to ask federal regulators in March
for permission to build a 1 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas terminal, company
President John Godbold told Platts. Godbold said the Calhoun County, Texas,
Navigation District has agreed to issue tax-free municipal bonds to finance
construction of the terminal and would own the facility. Calhoun LNG is now
searching for a company to commit to the proposed terminal's capacity.
The terminal would be ideal for someone who has [LNG] supply, but needs
downstream capacity, Godbold said in an interview Wednesday. They could
control the design and use of the facility, he added. Although the company
plans to submit an application to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
for the terminal and two single-containment storage tanks, Godbold said the
project could be expanded to 1.5 Bcf/d at the request of the capacity holder.
The proposal would allow the capacity holder to start on a smaller scale with
as little capacity as 300,000 Mcf/d and only one storage tank, he said. The
terminal site is in the midst of a number of industrial plants, including
facilities owned by Dow Chemical, BP Chemical, Formosa Plastics and Alcoa. The
petrochemical plants use large volumes of natural gas as feedstock and fuel.
They also use large volumes of gas liquids, potentially alleviating what is a
problem for some existing US terminals. Some imported LNG contains higher
volumes of gas liquids than interstate pipelines can accommodate. Plans for
the Calhoun terminal call for two pipelines out of the facility--one to carry
regasified LNG to nearby industrial plants as well as several interstate and
intrastate pipelines, and another pipeline for gas liquids, which would be
sold to a local user, Godbold said. |
