State questions future for LNG

The company that wants to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal in the Atlantic Ocean 19 miles southeast of Jones Beach, Liberty Natural Gas, LLC, says the terminal would provide the greater New York City region with a new source of “competitively priced” natural gas. But New York State’s Energy Planning Board doesn’t see much of a future for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, imports in the United States. In fact, they are already waning, according to the board’s recently published 2014 Draft New York State Energy Plan.

Liberty, a Manhattan-headquartered company that multi-billion-dollar Canadian hedge fund firm West Face Capital Inc. controls, applied in September 2012 to the U.S. Maritime Administration and Coast Guard for a deepwater port license to build Port Ambrose, its proposed terminal off the South Shore. According to the application, Port Ambrose would comprise a system of underwater buoys and pipelines, at which ships called “shuttle and regasification vessels” would dock to unload LNG from foreign shores.

LNG is natural gas that has been cooled to -260 degrees Fahrenheit and liquefied to transport by ship overseas. Once it arrives at its destination, it is heated aboard ship to restore it to gas form and piped ashore.

The primary source of the LNG would be the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, according to Liberty’s website. The LNG delivered to Port Ambrose would be piped to Long Beach. A 21.7-mile pipeline would connect Port Ambrose to the existing Transco Lateral, which extends from south Texas to New Jersey and then runs undersea to Long Beach. The hookup point with the Transco Lateral would be 2.2 miles south of Atlantic Beach.

CEO: LNG a ‘material benefit’