BHP pushes back California LNG plant start-up date

BHP pushes back California LNG plant start-up date BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, said Tuesday that a longer-than-expected approval process will move the start-up date of a proposed $800 million natural gas import terminal of the coast of California to no earlier than 2012.
   Plans for the Cabrillo Port liquefied natural gas terminal, which would import about 800 million cubic feet of gas per day to meet about 12 percent of California’s requirements, were announced by BHP in 2003. With a projected location about 12 miles off the coast of Ventura County, Calif., the plan comprises an offshore floating storage and a processing unit to turn the liquefied gas back to gas, plus pipelines on the ocean floor to pump gas into the state’s southern grid.
   The company had originally expected primary approval by the end of 2004 and to start up the terminal in 2008. BHP released the final environmental impact report on the proposed project Friday. Final approvals are expected over the next months, allowing detailed design work to start, a spokesperson told Bloomberg news in Australia.
   “We anticipate that whole process with construction will take a good five years at the minimum,” BHP spokesperson Kathi Hann told Bloomberg. “We’re expecting to deliver first gas here in California by, I guess, 2012 or 2013.”
   The project has come under increasing criticism from activists and Ventura County residents, including celebrities such as former James Bond film stars Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry. They have cited safety concerns and the potential for terrorist attacks.
   In response to early criticism of the project, BHP modified parts of the original proposal to reduce harmful environmental effects. It has reduced the expected number of LNG tanker arrivals to a maximum of 99, from 130, modified the proposed water cooling design to use a closed system, and agreed to use cleaner burning natural gas for tankers in California coastal waters.
   The U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration, which expressed safety concerns over the project in the environmental report released last Friday, are due to hold final public hearings next month, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is due to “weigh in on the deepwater port license” in May, Hann said.
   The State Lands Commission must also rule on a state permit for the project, but no date for the decision has been set.
   A three-year effort to build a $300 million plant at the Port of Long Beach has stalled, with port officials removing their support of the project last month. The builder, Sound Energy Solutions, has filed suit to allow the project to move forward.