AmericasGas

Delfin LNG applies to build deepwater LNG export facility in Gulf of Mexico

San Francisco: Delfin LNG has applied to build and operate the Delfin LNG Project (Port Delfin) – an offshore deepwater port export facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) – in the Gulf of Mexico.

It submitted the application to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG), making formal a plan Delfin LNG had announced several months ago.

The facility, which would be located in waters 50 miles south of the Texas/Louisiana border, would receive natural gas from the national grid, convert it into LNG and transfer that to specialised LNG carrier vessels for export.

Under the US Deepwater Port Act (DPA) there is a specific time frame of 330 days for approval or denial of the deepwater port licence.

The Project proposes to use pipeline infrastructure in the Gulf to transport natural gas offshore to four moored floating liquefied natural gas vessels (FLNGVs). The FLNGVs will use air cooling technology to liquefy natural gas, reducing impacts on marine resources. The Project also proposes to construct an onshore compressor station to move natural gas through the pipeline to the FLNGVs.

The four FLNGVs would have an initial total export capacity of 8 million metric tonnes per year that could be expanded to 13 million metric tonnes per year.

If realised, this would be the first floating deepwater liquefaction project in the US and could be fully operational by 2019.

Delfin LNG is a Houston-based subsidiary of Fairwood Peninsula Energy Corporation.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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