LNG terminal proposed offshore of Long Beach port

LNG terminal proposed offshore of Long Beach port A new proposal to build a liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Southern California was announced Thursday, just a week after a similar project was shot down by state regulators and only months after a landside version was put into limbo by local officials.
   Esperanza Energy, a subsidiary of Texas-based Tidelands Oil & Gas Corp., said it would file applications later this year to build a floating LNG terminal 15 miles off the Port of Long Beach. The proposed terminal would allow LNG vessels to discharge their cargo without ever entering the port. No estimates on the potential costs of the project or a timeline were offered.
   Last week, the California State Lands Commission denied a key permit to Australian energy giant BHP Billiton for the development of an offshore LNG terminal, effectively ending the proposed $800 million project.
   The Billiton project, under development for more than four years, sought to build a regasification terminal 14 miles offshore of Ventura County that would transform LNG back into natural gas and pump the gas via underwater pipelines into the state’s onshore gas pipeline system.
   A three-year effort to build a $300 million landside LNG terminal at the Port of Long Beach stalled in February, with port officials removing their support of the project. The builder, Sound Energy Solutions, has filed suit to allow the project to move forward.