 NEWS
By TOM JOHNSON
MAY 21, 2008 -- A joint venture between a Canadian energy company and a privately held New York firm wants to build a $550 million liquefied natural gas terminal in the ocean about 15 miles east of Asbury Park, the third off-shore LNG facility to be proposed for the Jersey coast.
The Liberty Natural Gas Transmission project, developed by Canadian Superior Energy and Global LNG, calls for an underwater facility that would receive gas from tanker ships and pump it ashore through a deep-water pipeline system. If approved, it could provide up to 2.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, or enough to supply 11 million homes in a region where tight supplies and rising demand have helped drive up gas and electric bills.
The project draws on technology long used in the North Sea that allows tankers to connect to cone-shaped turrets anchored to the sea floor in about 100 feet of water. The liquefied natural gas is first converted back into gas aboard the ship, then pumped through the turrets into a pipeline system connecting to the shore.
The backers of the project say it would help supply the region's energy needs with minimal effect on the ocean environment and without unsightly infrastructure associated with some other LNG projects that have been proposed. Exxon Mobil wants to build a floating marine terminal about 20 miles off the coast of Asbury Park, while Atlantic Sea Island proposes an LNG terminal on an artificial island 19 miles east of Sandy Hook.
"We believe we have identified the optimal low-impact energy supply solution for the Northeast region," said Roger Whelan, president and chief executive of Excalibur Energy, the name of the joint venture. Its offices are in Jersey City.
However, some conservation groups already are promising to block the project. "There is nothing liberating about industrializing our ocean, becoming more dependent on foreign fossil fuels, and increasing our energy costs," said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, based on Sandy Hook.
Other environmentalists said the project might have merit. "We went from a floating, offshore terminal to an artificial island to a submerged facility. At least the imprint on the ocean seems to be getting smaller," said Jeff Tittel, executive director of New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club.
LNG is natural gas that has been super-cooled to a liquid state to make it easier to ship over long distances. Natural gas use has steadily risen in recent years, despite sharp price increases, be cause it is viewed as a cleaner way of generating electricity, producing far less greenhouse gas than other fossil fuels such as coal.
Because LNG is highly combustible, however, facilities have been difficult to locate, especially given concerns about being a potential target for terrorists. In recent months, officials in New York and Connecticut have blocked an offshore natural gas terminal in Long Island Sound, and Delaware has held up a project in South Jersey on the Delaware River.
One of the advantages of an underwater terminal is it requires very little new infrastructure, reducing the cost of the project, said Bill Cooper, executive director of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas. "And there's very little environmental disturbance," he said.
Whelan said another advantage of his company's proposal is it requires no storage of LNG, lowering safety concerns about the project.
Natural gas for the project is expected to come from wells in Trinidad, one of the leading suppliers of LNG to the United States. It will take each ship about six days to convert the LNG back to gas and pump it into the pipeline system, Whelan said. The pipeline would come ashore in the South Amboy-Perth Amboy area and then carry the gas to Linden, a hub of gas lines serving the Northeast.
The project will need numerous regulatory approvals, including from the U.S. Coast Guard, Maritime Administration, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Applications will be submitted in early 2009, the company said.
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