Jacksonville, Fla. looks to become LNG hub

WesPac Midstream LLC and Pivotal LLC have established a joint venture to construct the first liquefied natural gas dedicated marine terminal in the world.    TOTE Maritime and Crowley Maritime Corp., along with LNG suppliers, discussed plans and advancements being made with using liquefied natural gas as fuel in the maritime industry at the LNG 904 event held at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. last week. 904 is the area code for Jacksonville and the majority of the discussion focused on LNG fuel supply in Jacksonville for shipping companies.
   WesPac Midstream LLC, a large infrastructure company based out of Irvine, Calif., and Pivotal LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlanta, Ga.-based AGL Resources, formed a joint-venture called JAX LNG to construct the first LNG-dedicated marine terminal in the world, WesPac Midstream LLC Vice President Sales and Marketing Kevin Worley said.
   Situated on a 36-acre site along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Fla., the site is already equipped with an existing marine dock that is capable of supporting a 700-foot long ship, 1,200 feet of water frontage and an existing rail spur.
   Construction for the new LNG terminal will probably start in mid-February.
   Initially, the plant will be able to supply 120,000 gallons of LNG a day, however it will have the potential to expand to a capacity of approximately 840,000 gallons of LNG a day as demand grows.
   The terminal will provide TOTE’s new Marlin class containerships, used between Jacksonville and Puerto Rico, with LNG fuel, which will be transported to the vessels by barge. The barge vessel should arrive sometime in the third quarter of 2016, TOTE, Inc. Executive VP Peter Keller said. Until the new terminal is complete, fuel will be trucked to TOTE’s containerships.
   In addition, TOTE is having its Orca class roll/on-roll/off (ro-ro) vessels, which operate between Tacoma, Wash. and Anchorage, Ala., re-engined to use LNG fuel, Keller said. The first vessel will depart for Singapore later this year where it will have new engines installed. The project will take three months per ship and will be carried out during the winter months when the service is less busy.
   Initially, LNG fuel for the Orca class vessels will be trucked from Vancouver, Canada to Tacoma until TOTE’s LNG plant is constructed right behind its terminal. The plant will be close enough for TOTE to build a cryogenic pipeline directly to the ship for fueling.
   Crowley has selected Eagle LNG to supply its Commitment class vessels, which will also operate between Jacksonville and Puerto Rico, with LNG fuel, and Eagle LNG plans to build a marine fueling LNG terminal right on the Tallyrand site at the Port of Jacksonville, Eagle LNG Partners Director of LNG Development Jack Chang said.
   The liquefaction section will be located west of Jacksonville in Maxville, Fla. Each day, LNG fuel will be trucked from Maxville to Crowley’s Tallyrand facility. Eagle LNG still has to go through the state for approval and expects to have its permit filed at the end of February at the latest, approval by April and mechanical completion by the end of 2016.
   As a separate project, Eagle LNG has plans to build an LNG export terminal in Jacksonville to export LNG to the Caribbean and Atlantic basins. The export project requires approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy. Eagle LNG does not plan to be able to break ground on this facility at least until mid-2017 and says it will not see LNG until the end of 2018.