Washington — The Sempra Energy-led Port Arthur natural gas liquefaction and export project in Texas cleared an environmental review by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, along with related pipeline projects.
A draft environmental impact statement issued by FERC staff September 28 found that the projects would do some harm to the environment, "but these impacts would be reduced to less-than-significant levels" by mitigation measures. A comment period on the document closes November 19. FERC will consider staff recommendations when commissioners make a decision on whether to authorize the projects.
The review covered both the 13.5 million-ton-per-annum Port Arthur LNG terminal in Jefferson County, Texas, proposed by Port Arthur LNG and the Texas Connector and Louisiana Connector projects that would supply it, proposed by Port Arthur Pipeline.
CALCASIEU SHIP CHANNEL
The terminal, sited in an area zoned for industrial use on the Calcasieu Ship Channel, would hold two liquefaction trains, each with an LNG production capacity of about 6.73 mtpa. It would also include three LNG storage tanks, truck loading facilities and a new marine slip with two vessel berths. The natural gas pipelines would together comprise about 165 miles of 42-inch diameter pipeline and three compressor stations in Texas and Louisiana.
Republican and Democratic FERC commissioners have disagreed in recent permitting decisions for natural gas infrastructure about how far to take the agency's analysis of a project's climate change impacts. Democrats want the commission to take a broad look at effects from the production, transportation and consumption stages. In the Port Arthur environmental review, FERC staff stuck to the commission's traditional limited approach, favored by Republicans. "Although climate change is a global concern, for this analysis, we focus on the potential cumulative impacts in the projects area," staff wrote.
The staff estimated greenhouse gas emissions from the projects would equate to 224,844 tons of CO2 equivalents during construction and 335,674 tons/year of CO2 equivalents during operation, primarily at the liquefaction site and the pipelines' compressor stations.
The developers applied for a Natural Gas Act certificate for the Port Arthur liquefaction project in November 2016 (CP17-20, CP17-21 and CP18-7).
FERC recently announced updated schedules for environmental reviews of LNG terminals along with steps to make the commission's processing of these types of applications more efficient. The Port Arthur project was one of the 12 projects covered by the notice.
