Sempra Energy LNG Announces Plans to Construct a New LNG Terminal in Texas

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Sempra Energy LNG (San Diego, California), a business unit of Sempra Energy Global Enterprises (SEGE) the umbrella for Sempra Energy's (NYSE:SRE) (San Diego, California) growth businesses, is planning to construct a new LNG terminal at Port Arthur, Texas. The planned LNG terminal will be located on 3,000 acres of land along the Port Arthur Ship Canal, which Sempra has owned since 1989. The announcement coincides with a pre-filing notice the energy company submitted to the FERC on April 22, 2004, to begin the permitting process for the new facility.

The scope of the $600 million dollar LNG terminal will include three 160,000 cubic meter cryogenic storage tanks, and two unloading berths, with a capacity to receive and re-gasify 1.5 Bcf/d of natural gas. The new terminal would be laid out in such a fashion as to allow it to be expanded to a total capacity of 3 Bcf/d at a later date. All things considered, construction could begin as early as 2006 with a targeted in-service date of 2009.

The Port Arthur terminal is the third LNG receiving terminal Sempra has initiated in North America. Sempra’s 1.5 Bcf/d Cameron LNG facility in Louisiana (PEC 02004677) was the first new LNG terminal to receive FERC approval in over two decades and its one Bcf/d Costa Azul LNG joint venture with Shell in Mexico (PEC 65000292) could begin construction later this year once all supply contracts have been confirmed.