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USCG review approves Texas LNG’s waterway

Published by , Senior Editor
Tanks and Terminals,


Texas LNG Brownsville LLC has announced that the US Coast Guard (USCG) has issued a Letter of Recommendation to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) confirming the suitability of the Brownsville Ship Channel for Texas LNG’s marine traffic as it relates to safety and security.

In its review of Texas LNG’s Water Suitabilitity Assessment, the USCG addressed public comments that raised a number of issues, including safety, security, potential environmental impacts, economics, public outreach, and physical characteritics of the ship channel. In addition, the USCG considered not only Texas LNG’s expected LNG carrier traffic, but also recognised other traffic transiting through the Channel including offshore rigs, aircraft carriers, fishing vessels, recreational vessels, towing vessels, non-piloted barges, as well as potential traffic from other proposed LNG projects. The USCG concluded that the waterway is suitable to handle current and anticipated incremental traffic from the Texas LNG facility.

The Texas LNG facility is being designed to accommodate LNG carriers with nominal LNG capacities up to 180 000 m3 and dimensions on the order of 977 ft (298 m) long and 151 ft (46 m) wide. The Brownsville Ship Channel has a current depth of 42 ft (12.8 m), with full US Congressional authorisation to deepen its channel to 52 ft (15.8 m).

The total inbound transit from the Gulf of Mexico sea buoy (pilot boarding area) to the future Texas LNG terminal berth is approximately 7 miles (11 km).

Issuance of the Coast Guard’s Letter of Recommendation marks another positive milestone in Texas LNG’s project development. Full FERC approval and Final Investment Decision (FID) for the development of the Texas LNG liquefaction project are expected in 2019, and the first phase production of 2 million tpy of LNG is expected to begin in 2023.

Texas LNG also confirmed that it has secured long-term offtake term sheets from LNG buyers in China, Southeast Asia and Europe, and is planning to begin pre-FID Detailed Engineering in 2018 upon closing of its current funding round.

Read the article online at: https://www.tanksterminals.com/storage-tanks/27022018/uscg-review-approves-texas-lngs-waterway/

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