UPDATE - US FERC won't block Williams LNG plant reopening
Date: 20-Dec-01
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
The agency gave its approval in October for restarting the Cove Point
LNG plant despite concerns that the facility could be subject to
sabotage that would threaten the nearby nuclear plant owned by
Constellation Energy Group .
FERC said several government agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard
and Transportation Department, have adequate safety measures in place
for the LNG plant in southern Maryland.
"Based on the evidence submitted by numerous federal and state
agencies...the commission confirms its previous finding that the
proximity of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant to Cove Point's
facilities does not raise a specific national security concern," FERC
said.
Several U.S. lawmakers and activists asked FERC to review security
concerns raised over the LNG plant, which Tulsa, Oklahoma-based energy
company Williams Cos. Inc. wants to reopen and expand.
Opponents raised safety issues regarding the plant and LNG tankers
entering the Chesapeake Bay to deliver imported gas supplies.
Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland demanded that FERC
reconsider its approval order, arguing that it was now too dangerous to
have an LNG plant operating so close to a nuclear power plant.
An LNG facility in Boston had been closed by state officials following
the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Officials feared an LNG tanker entering Boston harbor could be subject
to sabotage, causing massive damage.
However, FERC stood by its earlier approval order, saying the Cove Point
plant could be safely operated.
Williams wants to resume LNG shipments to the plant during the second
quarter of 2002. The company also plans to build a another storage tank
at the site that could hold up to 850,000 barrels of LNG.
The facility currently consists of four storage tanks, three 8.45
megawatt gas-turbine generators, an offshore LNG receiving pier with two
unloading docks and an 87-mile pipeline.
The Cove Point plant, built in 1974, was bought by Williams last year.
The plant stopped importing natural gas in the early 1980s, but reopened
as a natural gas storage site about 10 years later.
LNG is kept at ultra-cold temperatures and compressed for transport
aboard special tankers. It begins as natural gas in a vapor form. The
manufacturing process cools the gas to minus-259 degrees Fahrenheit,
changing the gas into a liquid and shrinking it to less than 1/600th of
its original size.
LNG, which is odorless and colorless, is then loaded into tankers and
shipped to markets, and converted back into dry gas for electric power
generation or another use as a fuel source.
