Below, the American Press reports a proposal for yet another LNG export terminal, bringing the total to at least 15, of which four have been approved.
The purpose of some or all of these facilities is exporting US natural gas to China, and the Chinese government has a huge investment in the approved Cheniere Energy Sabine Pass Liquefaction Plant in Louisiana.
The cross-Nicaragua canal proposed by a Chinese businessman with close connections to the Chinese Communist Party is intended for the transport of this gas in ships too big for the Panama Canal.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 11:11 AM
Venture Global may have a neighbor on the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
Waller Marine Inc., a Houston-based engineering and contracting company, is looking to build an LNG liquefaction and export plant on about 175 acres near the ship channel’s entrance.
Published reports have indicated that the estimated $200 million facility, Waller Point LNG, would consist of up to five 500,000-gallon-per-day trains capable of exporting 1.25 million metric tons of LNG to free trade agreement countries over a 25-year period.
The proposed facility would also export up to 1.5 million metric tons of LNG to non-FTA countries.
Last week, Venture Global executives announced their plans for an LNG plant at Calcasieu Pass, at the mouth of the channel. Maps obtained from the company show that the estimated $4.25 billion facility would be located to the right of the entrance on a 203-acre site.
Waller Marine executives applied for their FTA export license with the U.S. Department of Energy in October 2012. They applied for the department’s non-FTA license in November 2013.
The company has yet to file an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen.
Waller Marine executives are looking to build another $200 million LNG facility at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge in Port Allen.
Anthony Waller, spokesman for Waller Marine, could not be reached for comment.
Waller Point LNG and Calcasieu Pass are two of four new LNG plants being considered for the ship channel area. Southern California Telephone & Energy’s LNG plant proposal for Monkey Island and Magnolia LNG’s plans for a facility along the ship channel are also under consideration with federal regulators.
Executives from the channel’s two existing plants, Trunkline LNG and Cameron LNG, have also announced plans to expand. In October, Sempra Energy executives broke ground on Cameron LNG’s $10 billion expansion, which will add three additional trains to the Hackberry facility.
Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG, located on Louisiana’s southwest corner, is also expanding with six new trains, which are estimated to cost $18 billion. The facility’s final two trains remain under consideration with DOE and FERC officials.
