Proposed LNG exports raise coastal concerns
20th October 2014 · 0 Comments
By Susan Buchanan
Contributing Writer
Louisiana has been called Dubai and also Qatar on the Bayou because of its extensive oil-and-gas production and processing activities. Planned export terminals for liquified natural gas or LNG will add to the petro-conglomeration. Two LNG export terminals are proposed for Plaquemines Parish and nearly ten are in the works for the state’s southwest. These sites will use inexpensive gas from fracking shale within and outside of Louisiana. The gas will be cooled and condensed at temperatures well below zero so that it takes up less space.
New LNG terminals will provide jobs but some of them could interfere with efforts to slow wetlands loss, according to environmentalists, who are also worried about coal export sites in Plaquemines. Plans to build in wetland areas and to construct pipelines, which often tear fragile ground, raise red flags. LNG project proposals are troubling because Plaquemines and all of coastal Louisiana are losing land rapidly and faster than the rest of the nation.
The two proposed Plaquemines terminals are Cambridge Energy’s CE FLNG, LLC, headquartered in Bermuda, and Louisiana LNG Energy, LLC, based in Houston. Both are in the pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission now, Tamara Young-Allen, a spokeswoman for that agency said last week. During a pre-filing, FERC staff prepare an environmental impact statement, or EIS, assessing potential effects from an export project’s construction, operation and pipelines. The FERC uses the EIS in deciding whether to authorize a facility. “The purpose of the pre-filing is to encourage early involvement of interested stakeholders and to identify and resolve issues before FERC receives a formal application,” Young-Allen said. CE FLNG and Louisiana LNG Energy are expected to file full FERC applications next year.
What do these companies have in mind for Plaquemines? CE FLNG wants to build an export terminal on the east bank of the Mississippi River at mile marker 12.5. That’s northeast of Venice near Baptiste Collette Bayou. Up to eight miles of natural gas pipeline will be constructed, CE FLNG’s chief executive Sherman Bryant in Greensboro, Ga., said last week. The company plans to moor two 1,100-foot long, liquefaction, storage and offloading vessels at the terminal. Each of the floating vessels would produce up to 2.5 million tons of LNG annually and could store part of that output. Between 80 and 130 LNG carriers might call on the terminal yearly. “We expect first production to start in 2019,” Bryant said.
CE FLNG altered an earlier plan that would have dredged 125 acres, including wetlands area, along the river’s east bank. “Our terminal design has been modified, which will significantly reduce dredging or eliminate it on the site, except for some dredging that will be needed to build the pipeline,” CEO Bryant said. Dredged material will be applied to beneficial uses, he said. Government agencies authorize the use of dredged sediment to rebuild marshes and barrier islands.
When asked about the safety of operating floating LNG production vessels in hurricane-weary south Plaquemines, Bryant said the company’s liquefaction vessels would be out of harm’s way well before a storm’s approach. “We would move them into the Gulf as the Navy and other ship owners do,” he said. “This capability to move provides CE FLNG with a tremendous safety advantage over land-based LNG export facilities, especially in Louisiana. We’ll be the only facility with this ability in the United States.” Floating LNG production vessels operate in several other countries, he noted.
For its part, Louisiana LNG Energy wants to build a liquefaction facility on 200 acres at mile marker 46 on the Mississippi River’s east bank near Port Sulphur. Construction of two pipeline segments would require about 42 acres of land, 22 of which would be permanently impacted. The site would consist of four liquefaction trains—which are production units, not rail trains—providing two million tons of LNG annually for foreign and domestic customers. Amine units to remove impurities from gas and dehydration units would be located on land upstream from the liquefaction trains. These structures and storage tanks, heat exchangers, air coolers and gas turbines would be built modularly and assembled on site. LNG would be stored in tanks before being loaded onto LNG carriers. The company plans to construct a marine terminal and LNG truck facilities. The river’s depth would proved access for large gas-carrier vessels. The site’s shipments are expected to begin in late 2017.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen federal and state coastal restoration and storm protection projects, together costing billions of dollars, are under way in Plaquemines Parish this year. Industrial expansion could counter or interfere with some of these projects, environmentalists warn.
“We need to make sure that any developments in sensitive, vulnerable wetlands are held to the highest standards,” Devin Martin, a Sierra Club organizer in New Orleans, said last week. From 1956 to 2006, Plaquemines Parish lost nearly 250 square miles to subsidence or land sinking, levees that prevented sediment from building land, hurricanes, sea level rise and filling of wetlands for agriculture and industry, according to the parish. Construction of canals and oil-and-gas pipelines hastened land loss. Dirt piled on banks from digging canals altered natural water flows. Saltwater entered destabilized wetlands, killing protective vegetation.
Subject to these same influences, all of coastal Louisiana lost 25 percent of its land area in less than a century from 1932 to 2010, according to Plaquemines Parish.
Within the parish, the following federal and state projects should be finished this year: Lake Hermitage marsh creation, Scofield Island restoration, Shell Island East restoration, fringe marsh repairs, and storm-proofing of the area’s interior pumping stations. A Myrtle Grove river sediment diversion is in engineering and design now, and additional lower Mississippi diversions are in the feasibility and planning stages.
The Gulf Restoration Network, the Sierra Club and other members of the Clean Gulf Commerce Coalition have complained that Armstrong Coal’s planned RAM export terminal near Ironton in Plaquemines will interfere with the state’s Myrtle Grove diversion—which is needed to create wetlands. Dust from two nearby coal terminals, operated by other companies, is also a concern.
Hurricanes are a threat to the parish. Devin Martin said industrial sites along the coast must be well protected from storms. “The Stolthaven facility in Braithwaite was a stark reminder of how vulnerable our region is,” he said. In August 2012, the Stolthaven LLC petroleum and chemical terminal in the Plaquemines town of Braithwaite was flooded during Hurricane Isaac. Toxic chemicals spilled on surrounding land, forcing neighbors to evacuate. The state’s Dept. of Environmental Quality fined the company for failing to notify it immediately about the spill.
Last week, Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority had little to say about the proposed LNG export terminals for Plaquemines. “If something arises during the permitting process, we’ll comment at that time,” CPRA spokesman Chuck Perrodin said.
LNG export projects in Louisiana require approval from the U.S. Department of Energy to export; FERC’s final environmental impact statement to build and operate liquefaction facilities; an air quality permit from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality; a coastal use permit from the state’s Department of Natural Resources; and a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Between now and November 3, the FERC is seeking public input on Louisiana LNG Energy, LLC’s export terminal project. FERC can be contacted by phone at (202) 502-8258 or by email at efiling@ferc.gov.
This article originally published in the October 20, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
