[Federal Register: January 22, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 14)]
[Notices]
[Page 3165-3167]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22ja04-80]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Maritime Administration
[USCG-2004-16860]
Gulf Landing LLC Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port License
Application
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 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, as amended, that
they have received an application for the licensing of a 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 September 20, 2004, 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-2004-16860 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 Derek Dostie at 202-267-0226, or email at
ddostie@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:
[[Page 3166]]
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-
2004-16860), 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 November 3, 2003, the
Coast Guard and MARAD received an application from Gulf Landing LLC
(``Gulf Landing''), 1301 McKinney, Suite 700, Houston, Texas 77010 for
all Federal authorizations required for a license to own, construct and
operate a deepwater port off the coast of Louisiana. Supplemental
information was furnished at our request on December 12, 2003. On
January 5, 2004, we determined that the application contains all
information required by the Deepwater Port Act. The application and
related documentation supplied by the applicant (except for certain
protected information specified in 33 U.S.C. 1513) may be viewed in the
public docket (see ADDRESSES).
Background. According to the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended
(the Act; 33 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.), 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
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
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
Louisiana 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
construction of a deepwater port and associated anchorages in an area
situated in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 38 miles south of
Cameron, Louisiana in South Cameron Block 213, in water depth of
approximately 55 feet, and adjacent to an existing shipping fairway
servicing the Calcasieu River and area ports.
Gulf Landing's terminal would be capable of storing up to 180,000
cubic meters of LNG and vaporizing up to 1.2 billion cubic feet per
day. Gulf Landing proposes to construct, own, and operate up to 5
takeaway pipelines that would interconnect with existing natural gas
pipelines located in the Gulf of Mexico. Gas would then be delivered to
the onshore national pipeline grid for delivery to any consumption
market east of the Rockies.
The project would consist of two concrete gravity base structures
(GBSs) housing the LNG containment facilities, along with topside
unloading and vaporization structures, living quarters, and a ship
berthing system.
The terminal would be able to receive LNG carriers between 125,000
and 160,000 cubic meter capacities and unload up to 135 LNG carriers
per year. LNG carrier arrival frequency would be planned to match
specified terminal gas delivery rates. All marine systems,
communication, navigation aids and equipment necessary to conduct safe
LNG carrier operations and receiving of product during specified
atmospheric and sea states would be provided at the port.
The regasification process would consist of lifting the LNG from
storage tanks, pumping the cold liquid to pipeline pressure, subsequent
vaporization across heat exchanging equipment and, finally, send-out
through custody transfer metering to the gas pipeline network. No gas
conditioning is required for the terminal since the incoming LNG would
be pipeline quality.
Five offshore interconnector pipelines, ranging from 16 to 36
inches in diameter, would be constructed and would traverse a combined
65.7 nautical miles. Each pipeline would transport gas from the
terminal to an existing transmission pipeline where it would deliver
the gas to the onshore U.S. gas pipeline network. On average, Gulf
Landing expects the terminal would vaporize and deliver 1 billion cubic
feet per day (Bcfd) of natural gas to the pipelines, with a peak daily
send out rate of 1.2 Bcfd.
[[Page 3167]]
Dated: January 12, 2004.
Joseph J. Angelo,
Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and Environmental
Protection, Coast Guard.
Raymond R. Barberesi,
Director, Office of Ports and Domestic Shipping, U.S. Maritime
Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-1267 Filed 1-21-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P