Florida governor supports LNG port
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has announced his support for the planned Port Dolphin Energy Liquefied Natural Gas deepwater port project.
Port Dolphin, a subsidiary of H'egh LNG, plans to construct a deepwater port 28 miles off the Florida Gulf Coast of Manatee County. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2011 and be completed in 2013.
LNG tankers arriving at the port would link up with a natural gas pipeline running from the offshore terminal to Port Manatee and then inland for four miles before interconnecting with the state’s natural gas pipeline grid. The LNG would be returned to a gaseous state onboard the vessels and fed into the pipeline to serve customers throughout west central Florida.
As part of the federal permitting process, Crist was required to express support, opposition or take no position at all for the proposed LNG receiving terminal.
The project could serve more than a million homes with energy when it is in full operation.
H'egh LNG is a fully integrated ship-owning company offering long-term floating production, transportation, re-gasification and terminal solutions for LNG. The company operates a fleet of four LNG carriers and has two innovative Shuttle and Re-gasification Vessels (SRV) on order. In addition to transporting the LNG, these vessels will act as floating terminals while delivering the natural gas to the market. The company is developing two deepwater terminals based on SRV technology in Florida and the United Kingdom.