The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today authorized the proposed Elba Island LNG export project near Savannah, Georgia, to begin initial site preparation.
The approved work includes relocation of a dredge material containment area and a test pile program for the planned storm surge wall.
FERC stressed that it has not authorized the start of construction of LNG export facilities. The agency on 1 June approved construction of the export project and an associated pipeline expansion, but it must authorize the start specific phases after all conditions are met, including environmental mitigation measures.
US midstream company Kinder Morgan owns the existing Elba Island LNG import facility and would own the export facilities.
Shell has a 20-year contract for all the planned baseload liquefaction capacity of 2.5mn t/yr, equivalent to 350mn cf/d (9.9mn m³/d) of gas, and peak capacity of 4mn t/yr. Shell also will provide the small modular liquefaction trains that would be installed at the site.
Kinder Morgan said in a 27 June FERC filing that it expected to start construction of the terminal this summer, which would make Elba Island the sixth US LNG export terminal under construction. The midstream company told Argus today that it does not have an update of when construction of export facilities will likely start. Kinder Morgan initially wanted to start the site preparation work in July.
Under the June timeline, Kinder Morgan said first three liquefaction trains at Elba Island were slated to reach full production by 20 April 2018, while trains 4-10 were scheduled to reach full production by November 2018.
Since Elba Island is smaller than other facilities being built in the US and would use modular technology built off-site, it could be the third US export project to come on line, after Sabine Pass LNG in Louisiana, which started exporting in February, and Cove Point in Maryland, which is due to start operating in late 2017.
The project has an estimated cost of $2.3bn, with $2bn for the 10 liquefaction trains and associated facilities, and $300mn for pipeline infrastructure.
Feed gas would come via the installation of additional southward transportation capacity along Kinder Morgan's 189-mile (304km) Elba Express pipeline, which extends northwest from the terminal to the Transcontinental pipeline along the Georgia-South Carolina border. It also connects with Southern Natural Gas in Georgia. The connections would allow gas to come from a number of producing basins, including the Marcellus shale formation centered in Pennsylvania.
FERC in June authorized Kinder Morgan to start adding north-to-south capacity on Elba Express so that some regional gas customers can start using their southbound capacity by late this year.
