[Federal Register: May 20, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 98)]
[Notices]
[Page 29142-29143]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20my04-56]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Maritime Administration
[USCG-2004-17659]
Compass Port LLC Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port License
Application
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS, and Maritime Administration, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of application.
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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) give
notice, as required by the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, that they have
received an application for the licensing of a liquefied natural gas
(LNG) deepwater port, and that the application appears to contain the
required information. This notice summarizes the applicant's plans and
the procedures that will be followed in considering the application.
DATES: Any public hearing held in connection with this application must
be held no later than January 17, 2005, and it would be announced in
the Federal Register. A decision on the application must be made within
90 days after the last public hearing held on the application.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket
number USCG-2004-17659 to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S.
Department of Transportation. To avoid duplication, please use only one
of the following methods:
(1) Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
(2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
(3) Fax: 202-493-2251.
(4) Delivery: Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone
number is 202-366-9329.
(5) Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice,
call Lieutenant Commander Kevin Tone at 202-267-0226, or e-mail at
ktone@comdt.uscg.mil. If you have questions on viewing or submitting
material to the docket, call Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, Docket
Operations, telephone 202-366-0271.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Public Participation and Request for Comments
You may submit comments concerning this application. All comments
received will be posted, without change, to http://dms.dot.gov and will
include any personal information you have provided. We have an
agreement with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to use their
Docket Management Facility. Please see DOT's ``Privacy Act'' paragraph
below.
Submitting comments: If you submit a comment, please include your
name and address, identify the docket number for this rulemaking (USCG-
2004-17659), indicate the specific section of this document to which
each comment applies, and give the reason for each comment. You may
submit your comments and material by electronic means, mail, fax, or
delivery to the Docket Management Facility at the address under
ADDRESSES; but please submit your comments and material by only one
means. If you submit them by mail or delivery, submit them in an
unbound format, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for
copying and electronic filing. If you submit them by mail and would
like to know that they reached the Facility, please enclose a stamped,
self-addressed postcard or envelope.
Viewing comments and documents: To view comments, as well as
documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket,
go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time and conduct a simple search using
the docket number. You may also visit the Docket Management Facility in
room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh
Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments
received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review the
Department of Transportation's Privacy Act Statement in the Federal
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or you may visit
http://dms.dot.gov.
Receipt of application; determination. On March 29, 2004, the Coast
Guard and MARAD received an application from Compass Port LLC (Compass
Port), a wholly owned subsidiary of ConocoPhillips Company, PO Box
2197, Houston, Texas 77252-2197 for all federal authorizations required
for a license to own, construct and operate a deepwater port off the
coast of Alabama. The application was received on March 29, 2004. A
portion of the initial submission was in a format not compatible with
our software. However, by mid-April, we had received the information in
a suitable format to allow us to complete our review. On April 27,
2004, we determined that the application contains all information
required by the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1501
et seq. (``the Act''). The application and related documentation
supplied by the applicant (except for certain protected information
specified in 33 U.S.C. 1513) will be made available for viewing in the
public docket (see ADDRESSES).
Background. According to the Act, a deepwater port is a fixed or
floating manmade structure other than a vessel, or a group of
structures, located beyond State seaward boundaries and used or
intended for use as a port or terminal for the transportation, storage,
and further handling of oil or natural gas for transportation to any
State.
A deepwater port must be licensed, and the Act provides that a
license applicant submit detailed plans for its facility to the
Secretary of Transportation, along with its application. The Secretary
has delegated the processing of deepwater port applications to the U.S.
Coast Guard and MARAD. The Act allows 21 days following receipt of the
application to determine if it contains all required information. If it
does, we must publish a notice of application in the Federal Register
and summarize the plans. This notice is intended to meet those
[[Page 29143]]
requirements of the Act and to provide general information about the
procedure that will be followed in considering the application.
Application procedure. The application is considered on its merits.
Under the Act, we must hold at least one public hearing within 240 days
from the date this notice is published. A separate Federal Register
notice will be published to notify interested parties of any public
hearings that are held. At least one public hearing must be held in
each adjacent coastal state. Pursuant to 33 U.S.C. 1508, we designate
Alabama as an adjacent coastal state for this application. Other states
may apply for adjacent coastal state status in accordance with 33
U.S.C. 1508 (a)(2). After the last public hearing, Federal agencies
have 45 days in which to comment on the application, and approval or
denial of the application must follow within 90 days of the last public
hearing. Details of the application process are described in 33 U.S.C.
1504 and in 33 CFR part 148.
Summary of the application. The application plan calls for the
proposed deepwater port to be located in the Mobile Outer Continental
Shelf (OCS) and Mississippi Sound areas of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico,
approximately 11 miles off Dauphin Island, Alabama in lease block
Mobile 910. Compass Port would serve as an LNG receiving, storage, and
regasification facility, located in approximately 70 feet of water
depth, and will incorporate docking facilities, unloading facilities,
two LNG storage tanks, regasification facilities, an offshore pipeline
and support facilities.
Compass Port proposes the installation of approximately 26.8 miles
of 36-inch diameter natural gas transmission pipelines on the OCS. The
proposed pipeline would connect the deepwater port with existing gas
distribution pipelines near Coden, Alabama.
The deepwater port facility would consist of two concrete gravity-
based structures (GBS) that would contain the LNG storage tanks, LNG
carrier berthing provisions, LNG unloading arms, low and high pressure
pumps, vaporizers, metering, utility systems, general facilities and
accommodations. The terminal would be able to receive LNG carriers up
to 255,000 cubic meters cargo capacity. LNG carrier arrival frequency
would be planned to match specified terminal gas delivery rates. LNG
would be stored in two integral full-containment tanks, each with a
capacity of 150,000 cubic meters, and a combined capacity of 300,000
cubic meters of LNG.
The regasification process would consist of lifting the LNG from
the storage tanks, pumping the LNG to pipeline pressure, vaporizing
across heat exchanging equipment, and sending out through the pipeline
to custody transfer metering for ultimate delivery to downstream
interstate pipeline capacity. No gas conditioning is required since the
incoming LNG will meet the gas quality specifications of the downstream
pipelines.
The deepwater port would be designed to handle a nominal capacity
of 7.5 million metric tons per annum of LNG. This is equivalent to an
average delivery of approximately 1.02 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/
d) of pipeline quality gas.
Dated: May 12, 2004.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and
Environmental Protection, U.S. Coast Guard.
Raymond R. Barberesi,
Director, Office of Ports and Domestic Shipping, U.S. Maritime
Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-11391 Filed 5-19-04; 8:45 am]
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