[Federal Register: July 21, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 139)]
[Notices]
[Page 43618-43619]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr21jy04-102]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Maritime Administration
[USCG-2004-18474]
Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal 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, as amended, 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 March 18, 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-2004-18474 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 Ken Kusano at 202-267-1184, or e-mail at
KKusano@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-
2004-18474), 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 May 25, 2004, the Coast
Guard and MARAD received an application from Pearl Crossing LNG
Terminal LLC, 800 Bell Street, Houston, TX 77002 for all federal
authorizations required for a license to own, construct and operate a
deepwater port off the coast of Louisiana with associated pipeline
facilities. On July 8, 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 available 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
Coast Guard and MARAD. The Act allows 21 days following receipt of the
application to determine if it appears to contain 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 the adjacent coastal state for this application. Other
states may apply for adjacent coastal state status in
[[Page 43619]]
accordance with 33 U.S.C. 1508 (a)(2). After the last public hearing,
Federal agencies and the adjacent coastal State 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.
The Coast Guard and MARAD plan to prepare an environmental impact
statement (EIS) for this project. The EIS will also assess the
environmental impact of an onshore pipeline that is part of the project
proposal, even though an affiliate of Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal LLC
must separately apply for and receive an authorization from the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for that onshore pipeline. We have
consulted with FERC and understand that the affiliate applied to FERC
for onshore pipeline authorization under Docket Number CP04-374-000,
CP04-375-000 and CP04-376-000. All comments related to this project,
including the onshore pipeline, may be submitted in accordance with the
guidance under ADDRESSES.
Summary of the application. The application plan calls for the
proposed deepwater port to be located outside State waters in the Gulf
of Mexico on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), approximately 41
miles (66 kilometers) south of the Louisiana coast in West Cameron
Block 220. It will be located in a water depth of approximately 62 feet
(19 meters). The proposed Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal is a concrete
Gravity Based Structure (GBS). The terminal proposes to install two
integral liquefied natural gas storage tanks and serve as the platform
for vessels to offload and regasify LNG.
The proposed GBS is a double-walled concrete structure, rectilinear
in shape, that would measure approximately 590 feet (180 meters) long
by 295 feet (90 meters) wide. The structure would rest on the seabed
with a total terminal footprint (GBS plus jacket structures) area of
approximately 12 acres (5 hectares). The terminal would include LNG
storage tanks, equipment for receiving and vaporization of LNG,
electric power generation, water purification, nitrogen generation,
sewage treatment and accommodations for up to 60 persons. The total net
working capacity of the two integral LNG storage tanks would be 250,000
cubic meters (m3).
Pearl Crossing would have the ability to accommodate two LNG
carriers alongside that will have capacities ranging from 125,000 to
250,000 m3 per vessel. This would allow one incoming LNG
carrier to be secured to prepare to offload cargo, while another LNG
carrier is completing an offloading cycle.
Ship cargo transfer will use two loading arm packages (one on each
side of the terminal), each consisting of five 16-inch-diameter (40-
centimeter) loading arms. LNG carriers would offload through four of
the loading arms. Offloading rates are expected to equal 14,000
m3 per hour of LNG. The fifth loading arm would be dedicated
to vapor return from the terminal for pressure equalization between an
LNG carrier and the storage tanks of Pearl Crossing.
The regasification process would be accomplished through thirteen
electric pumps that will supply 13,200 gallons per minute (50,000
liters per minute) of seawater for the open rack vaporizers. The
intakes will utilize passive, cylindrical wedge-wire-type screens with
an automated air backwash system. The slot size would be 0.25 inch (6.4
millimeters) or less to minimize impingement or entrainment of marine
organisms. Seawater would be treated with hypochlorite produced by an
electrolytic chlorination unit prior to entering the seawater pump
intake lines.
The applicant proposes to install two dedicated 42-inch-diameter
(1,100 mm) offshore pipelines that will originate at the terminal and
traverse the Gulf of Mexico in a northwesterly direction to the high
water mark near Johnsons Bayou in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Each
offshore pipeline would have a throughput capacity of 1.4 billion
standard cubic feet per day (Bscfd) for a total peak capacity of 2.8
Bscfd. Thereafter, the pipelines will continue onshore to multiple gas
delivery points in Louisiana and come under FERC jurisdiction.
Pearl Crossing Pipeline LLC will transport natural gas from the
terminal's two offshore pipelines for further transportation. Gas will
be transported to a metering and distribution station in Johnsons Bayou
for delivery to several interstate and intrastate pipelines near the
station. Once onshore, an additional 63.75 miles of 42-inch-diameter
pipeline and five additional meter stations would be constructed. The
pipeline would terminate near Starks, Louisiana, and requires separate
permitting by FERC. There are no proposals for onshore storage.
Dated: July 16, 2004.
Joseph J. Angelo,
Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and Environmental
Protection, U.S. Coast Guard.
H. Keith Lesnick,
Senior Transportation Specialist, Deepwater Ports, Program Manager,
U.S. Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-16590 Filed 7-20-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P