Port Dolphin LNG import to Florida from Louisiana and Texas?

Our old friend Port Dolphin is back asking LNG import competing with or displacing Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline, this time possibly shipping gas across the Gulf of Mexico from U.S. LNG export facilities.

300x225 FERC Approved LNG Export and Import, in LNG, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 22 February 2015 Back in 2009 Port Dolphin got FERC approval for LNG import, but then there was a big recession, and the “shale gas revolution” (fracking) happened, resulting in most LNG import facilities filing for LNG export instead. But Port Dolphin wants to continue with imports, as Joe Fisher wrote for Natural Gas Intelligence, 20 October 2014, Would-Be Florida LNG Importer Sees Promise in Cross-Gulf Trade,

Florida does not have indigenous gas supply and historically has been served by two interstate natural gas pipeline with a third one planned, Sabal Trail (see Daily GPI, Oct. 24, 2013). Recently announced is a related north-to-south intrastate pipeline project (Florida Southeast Connection) (see Daily GPI, Oct. 10).

Rather than turn its LNG import project around to export liquefied U.S. gas — as other would-be import terminal developers/operators have done — Port Dolphin, which is a unit of Norway’s Hoegh LNG AS, still wants to make a go of importing LNG. It told FERC the project could even regasify domestically sourced LNG from the Gulf of Mexico, for instance.

Translation: Port Dolphin wants to supplant Sabal Trail by importing fracked methane across the Gulf of Mexico from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass (5) or Sempra’s Cameron LNG (6) in Louisiana, or from Freeport LNG (7) or Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG (9) in Texas, or even from Dominion’s Cove Point LNG (8) in Maryland. Port Dolphin itself is (2) on this FERC map of approved LNG Import and Export terminals:

600x450 FERC Approved LNG Export and Import, in LNG, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 22 February 2015

U.S. EPA specifically suggested Port Dolphin LNG import instead of Sabal Trail’s pipeline, back on 23 April 2014.

As Sandra Slack pointed out 11 April 2014, Gulfstream, which is co-owned by Spectra Energy and Williams Company, objected to Port Dolphin before FERC approved it.

I’d be fine with Port Dolphin replacing Sabal Trail. I’d be even finer with the whole shale gas boondoggle being cancelled in favor of solar power for the Sunshine State.

-jsq

One thought on “Port Dolphin LNG import to Florida from Louisiana and Texas?

  1. Our country and our world must divest from fossil fuels. That needs to be our goal against LNG, pipelines, transport, infrastructure that supports this type of energy. Solar, wind and hydro are our only hope for the sake of our planet and our own future.

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