[Federal Register: January 27, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 17)]
[Notices]
[Page 3934-3935]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr27ja04-97]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Maritime Administration
[USCG-2004-16877]
Cabrillo Port 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 23, 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-2004-16877 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 email 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-
2004-16877), 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 81/2 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 September 3, 2003, the
Coast Guard and MARAD received an application from BHP Billiton LNG
International Inc. (``Port Cabrillo''), 1360 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite
150, Houston, Texas 77056-3020 for all federal authorizations required
for a license to own, construct and operate a deepwater port off the
coast of California. Supplemental information was furnished at our
request on December 9, 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
[[Page 3935]]
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 California 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 Pacific Ocean, approximately 14 miles offshore of
Ventura County, California, between the cities of Oxnard and Port
Hueneme. There are no Mineral Management Service lease blocks involved
with this project and the nearest lease block is Lease OCS-P 0202,
Platform Gina, which is located in OCS waters 3.7 miles offshore of
Port Hueneme. The facility would be adjacent to the existing San Pedro
Channel shipping lane.
Port Cabrillo's terminal would be a turret moored, ship hull-like
offshore Floating, Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), and an
interconnected send-out pipeline that would tie into the existing
onshore natural gas distribution system of Southern California Gas
(SoCalGas). The FSRU would include three independent Moss spherical
storage tanks mounted within the vessel's hull, which would provide a
total storage capacity of 276,000 cubic meters of LNG. The FSRU's deck
would support LNG receiving and submerged combustion vaporization
equipment and utilities, berthing accommodations for personnel, ship
berthing and mooring system, and facilities for delivery of natural gas
to a 30'' pipeline. The pipeline would be 21 miles in length and
connect onshore at Ormond Beach (near Oxnard, CA) to an existing gas
supply for distribution throughout the Southern California region.
The mooring turret would be fixed to the seabed with an 8-point
anchoring system, and consist of 3 flexible riser pipes and a Pipeline
Ending Manifold (PLEM).
The facility would be able to receive LNG carriers between 100,000
and 220,000 cubic meter capacities. All marine systems, communication,
navigation aids and equipment necessary to conduct safe LNG carrier
operations and receipt of product during specified atmospheric and sea
states would be provided at the port. LNG offload would be accomplished
through use of up to 4, 16 diameter standard loading arm
connections, and at a rate of up to 80,000 gallons per minute.
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 an interconnected pipeline. No gas conditioning would be
required for the terminal since the incoming LNG would be pipeline
quality. Port Cabrillo expects the terminal would vaporize and deliver
up to 0.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) of natural gas to the
pipeline.
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. 04-1614 Filed 1-26-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P