Deepwater ports; license applications: Gulf Landing LLC,
[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]
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.
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:
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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
