Woodside seeks LNG port off So. California shore
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LOS ANGELES, March 15 (Reuters) - Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) of Australia said on Wednesday it wants to build a 28-mile undersea pipeline to connect with an underwater buoy off Los Angeles that could by 2011 supply California with up to 15 percent of its liquefied natural gas needs.
Woodside plans to have new tankers built that can convert LNG to natural gas that will be piped undersea to an underground pipeline system run by Southern California Gas, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (SRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), said Wendy Mitchell, vice president for government affairs at Woodside's North American offices in Los Angeles.
There would be no permanent structure offshore and the buoy would be about 100 feet under the Pacific Ocean surface and would be the "size of a small room," said Jane Cutler, president of Woodside's Los Angeles-based subsidiary Woodside Natural Gas.
The first tanker would not unload gas until late 2010, when the Woodside-owned Pluto field off northwestern Australia is expected to begin production. The port could take from 800 million to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day (24 million cubic meters to 42 million cubic meters) of natural gas by 2011, she said.
Also possible as a source for LNG that would come to the buoy is the Woodside-operated Browse natural gas field also off Australia, which Cutler said is due to begin producing between 2012-2014.
Woodside is calling the its plan the "OceanWay Secure Energy proposal for California."
It would take three to five days to discharge a full tanker, depending on the speed needed to meet California LNG demand, Mitchell said.
California consumes about 6.4 billion cubic feet (192 million cubic meters) a day of gas, with half of that used as fuel firing power plants, according to the California Energy Commission. Gas demand, the commission says, is expected to rise 0.7 percent annually in the next 10 years.
Cutler said Woodside would file for the pipeline and buoy with the two main permitting agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard and the California State Lands Commission.
The permitting process could take up to two years. Construction of the pipeline would take about three months, Mitchell said.
Tankers that can convert LNG, which is cooled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to shrink to 1/600th of its gaseous state, are in use in the Gulf of Mexico, Cutler said.
In March 2005, Excelerate Energy became the first in the world to perform an offshore delivery of LNG when its "Gulf Gateway" submerged buoy 116 miles off Louisiana received a 3 billion cubic-foot cargo from Malaysia.
Woodside would build its own tankers to carry Australian LNG. Construction of those 200-meter ships would take three years, she said.
Cutler told a news conference via telephone on Wednesday that Woodside has talked with environmental organizations in order to mitigate opposition and will continue during the permitting process.
"We can locate this well away from shore," Cutler said, "and away from marine protected areas. It is not involving a permanent large facility."
The undersea pipeline would connect to the Southern California Gas pipeline at the Los Angeles International Airport.
The buoy is about 22 miles south of Malibu, California. The Los Angeles Times quoted the Malibu mayor, Andy Stern, that "the vast majority of people in my city are opposed to any LNG facility. It's an environmental disaster waiting to happen."
Cutler and Mitchell say that Woodside has made more than 2000 LNG deliveries in 17 years in the business without incident.
The undersea buoy would not be visible to boaters unless a tanker is unloading LNG, Mitchell said.
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