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Gold/Mining/Energy : LNG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (319)	5/4/2005 10:21:25 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

LNG plans challenged via NAFTA Environmental groups try new tactic in Baja By Diane Lindquist UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER signonsandiego.com May 4, 2005 Seven U.S. and Mexican environmental groups filed a challenge yesterday under the North American Free Trade Agreement to ChevronTexaco's plan to build a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal near the Coronado Islands. They accuse Mexico of failing to fully evaluate the impact on bird, plant and sea life, especially on one of the North American coastline's largest colonies of Xantus' murrelets. "The issues were not getting much response from the Mexican government," said Serge Dedina, co-director of San Diego-based Wildcoast. He said Mexico's environmental agency, known as Semarnat, has not followed the approval process required by law to ensure the protection of the country's natural resources. If, for instance, a public hearing was held on the project, environmental groups were unaware of it, Dedina said. "Semarnat has become a pro-development agency rather than an environmental agency," he said. Officials of the agency, Secretaria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, did not respond to telephone or e-mail inquiries asking for comment. A ChevronTexaco representative also could not be reached for comment. Filing a petition with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which was created in 1994 under a NAFTA side agreement and is headquartered in Montreal, is a new tactic for critics of LNG terminals proposed in Baja California. Opponents of Sempra Energy's LNG project at Costa Azul north of Ensenada have filed action in federal and state courts in Mexico to try to stop development of the receiving terminal. Sempra and ChevronTexaco have been granted environmental permits. Sempra contends that a federal suspension of the Semarnat permit has been resolved, and it has broken ground on the project. No action apparently has been taken against a third proposed Baja California facility – a floating storage and regasification unit about five miles off Rosarito Beach being developed by Terminales y Almacenes Maritimos de Mexico with Moss Maritime. That project received its Semarnat permit about two weeks ago. All three projects are expected to provide natural gas to Baja California and Southern California. Under the NAFTA rules, the environmental commission can hold hearings on the disputed issues surrounding the ChevronTexaco LNG terminal, but it cannot stop the project. Dedina said the groups are using the NAFTA process to highlight the issues involved in the dispute. "The NAFTA panel will be a good forum to get a hearing so that Mexico will pay attention," he said. The petition was prepared by Jay Tutchton, the director of the University of Denver Environmental Law Clinical Partnership. "If the Commission for Environmental Cooperation does not prevent such a blatant example of a project that has fled across a border to avoid environmental laws, I don't know what purpose it fulfills other than to greenwash environmentally destructive free trade," Tutchton said. Other groups filing the challenge are Greenpeace Mexico; the Los Angeles Audubon Society; the Center for Biological Diversity; the Grupo de Ecologia y Conservación de las Islas; the American Bird Conservancy; and Shaye Wolf, a seabird biologist at the University of California Santa Cruz. They contend that the light and activity on ChevronTexaco's $650 million project, to be located on a platform about 600 yards from the southernmost and largest of the Coronado Islands, will harm the largest known colony of the endangered Xantus' murrelet, a small black-and-white seabird. The bird's population is estimated at less than 10,000, with more than half of that nesting at the Coronados. Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812; diane.lindquist@uniontrib.com

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (319)	6/22/2005 8:49:20 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

Sempra Sees Possible LNG Deal with Chevron Wed Jun 22, 2005 01:10 AM ET reuters.com By Nigel Hunt LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Sempra Energy (SRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) could reach a deal to expand its liquefied natural gas facility in Baja California, Mexico, and sell capacity to Chevron Corp. (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , which may then opt not to build a rival terminal, Sempra Global president Mark Snell said on Tuesday. "I think there will be only our facility in Baja," he told Reuters in an interview. Chevron has announced plans to build an LNG terminal in Baja California but Snell said it would be more economical for the company to secure capacity at an expanded Sempra facility. "It would be so much cheaper to expand our facility and (for Chevron) to take our capacity," Snell said. "We talk to everybody. They (Chevron) know. I think we will expand our facility and they will take it (the extra capacity) and I think that will be the best deal," he added. Sempra is building an LNG terminal in Baja California which is expected to start receiving cargoes around 2008. The company also plans to build the Cameron LNG terminal in Louisiana and a facility at Port Arthur, Texas. Snell said he expected only around half-a-dozen LNG receiving terminals to get built in the United States this decade, including the three Sempra facilities. "I think the likelihood of us drowning in LNG is pretty low," he said, responding to concerns that there may be overcapacity with plans announced to build around 50 terminals. It is widely acknowledged that only a small fraction of these will actually be constructed. Sempra Global, a unit of Sempra Energy, is parent of the non-utility businesses. These include Sempra LNG and its trading arm, Sempra Commodities, which has been hurt by the sharp rise in energy prices. PRICE SPIKE "When prices spike way up actually our customer business falls off because nobody wants to lock in these high prices. We had a little bit of that last quarter," he said. Another Sempra Global unit, Sempra Generation, has a fleet of power plants in the western U.S. and Texas. The unit has announced it is also considering building a coal-fired plant in Nevada, a move that has already prompted some opposition from groups in nearby California sparked by environmental concerns. "I would say we are still in the studying state. We haven't made a decision yet and that decision will be primarily based on the economics," Snell said. "Given the cost of building that kind of plant does it really make economic sense. Frankly I don't think we have really answered that question in our own minds yet. If at the end of the day we decide it is too expensive to build we won't do it," he added. Snell said the company would be interested in expanding into the vibrant PJM market in the eastern U.S. which covers a vast region including all or parts of Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. "We would love to be in PJM too. PJM is a real merchant market, there is a robust daily power market, you can really sell power and move power and all that kind of stuff," he said. Sempra Generation's power plants in West are heavily weighted toward the south of the region and Snell said the company would be interested in facilities further north. "We are looking for opportunities to spread out a little bit (into northern California)," he said. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (319)	6/25/2005 7:42:58 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

Chevron to decide on Baja LNG terminal by mid-2006 - Mexico Published: Friday, June 24, 2005 18:09 (GMT -0400) bnamericas.com US-based Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) will make a final decision on whether to build an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal in near Tijuana, Mexico by mid-2006, Chevron's Mexico president Carlos Atallah told BNamericas. The decision will be based on financial reasons and not environmental ones, Atallah added. Environmental NGO Greenpeace held a protest June 16 in front of Chevron's offices in Mexico City to denounce the project, saying it will have a negative impact on wildlife on the Coronado Islands, which is an important breeding ground for rare birds. However, Atallah said the maritime platform would have no impact on wildlife or it will be "insignificant" according to environmental studies carried out by independent institutions. Atallah explained the project would be an offshore platform near the islands, located across the maritime US-Mexico border on the Pacific Ocean, 13km from Tijuana, Baja California state. Estimated investment in the project is US$650mn. The proposed terminal would be built using a freestanding concrete structure, along with facilities for offloading, storing and regasifying LNG. The terminal will have an initial processing capacity of 700 million cubic feet a day (Mf3/d). Operations of the terminal could start in 2009-2010, Atallah said, after a final decision is made in mid-2006 by Chevron and its partners on the development of the Gorgon offshore gas field in Australia. Chevron signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gorgon project - in which the company has a 57% stake and is operator - to supply the Baja terminal. ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES In 2003-2004 Chevron received energy and environmental permits from federal authorities to build the platform. No state or municipal authorization was required since the LNG terminal will be exclusively on federal jurisdiction. "We selected the site after we received complete environmental studies from independent consultants like [San Diego-based research institute] Hubs Sea World and local universities" in Baja California, said Atallah. "We have scientific evidence that there will not be environmental damage or it will be insignificant, like night lighting, which it is always possible to diminish," he added. Moreover, another environmental impact study is being carried out by URS Corporation, a San Francisco-based engineering design company, Atallah said. Hubbs Sea World is also working on a marine mammal survey around the Coronado Islands, Pamela Yochem, a senior research biologist at the research institute told BNamericas. Hubbs will come out with results in 2006 and it will specify what kind of animals pass through the area in different seasons, she said. OTHE LNG TERMINALS The Chevron project would be the second LNG regasification project to be developed in Baja California and one of at least seven proposed projects in Mexico. Anglo-Dutch company Shell has joined US company Sempra in a 50:50 joint venture to develop the Costa Azul LNG project 97km south of the US-Mexico border near Ensenada in Baja California. Costa Azul is expected to start operations in 2007. The plant will have processing capacity of about 1 billion cubic feet of gas a day (Bf3/d) and will be supplied with LNG from Russia's Sakhalin project and Australia's Gorgon project. Another three LNG plants are planned on Mexico's Pacific coast at the industrial port of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán state, the port of Manzanillo in Colima state and the northwestern port of Topolobampo, Sinaloa state. Mexico's state power company CFE will launch an international tender to supply 500Mf3/d of LNG to a regasification terminal at Manzanillo in July or August. On the Gulf of Mexico coast, Shell is building an LNG terminal at the port of Altamira, about 322km from the US-Mexico border, and another project has been proposed in the southeastern port of Coatzacoalcos. Guillermo García BNamericas.com