[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 14 (Thursday, January 22, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3165-3167]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-1267]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[USCG-2004-16860]


Gulf Landing LLC Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port License 
Application

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. Maritime Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of application.

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) give 
notice, as required by the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended, that 
they have received an application for the licensing of a deepwater 
port, and that the application appears to contain the required 
information. This notice summarizes the applicant's plans and the 
procedures that will be followed in considering the application.

DATES: Any public hearing held in connection with this application must 
be held no later than September 20, 2004, and it would be announced in 
the Federal Register. A decision on the application must be made within 
90 days after the last public hearing held on the application.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket 
number USCG-2004-16860 to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S. 
Department of Transportation. To avoid duplication, please use only one 
of the following methods:
    (1) Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
    (2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    (3) Fax: 202-493-2251.
    (4) Delivery: Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif 
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is 202-366-9329.
    (5) Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice, 
call Lieutenant Derek Dostie at 202-267-0226, or email at 
[email protected]. If you have questions on viewing or submitting 
material to the docket, call Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, Docket 
Operations, telephone 202-366-0271.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

[[Page 3166]]

Public Participation and Request for Comments

    You may submit comments concerning this application. All comments 
received will be posted, without change, to http://dms.dot.gov and will 
include any personal information you have provided. We have an 
agreement with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to use their 
Docket Management Facility. Please see DOT's ``Privacy Act'' paragraph 
below.
    Submitting comments: If you submit a comment, please include your 
name and address, identify the docket number for this rulemaking (USCG-
2004-16860), indicate the specific section of this document to which 
each comment applies, and give the reason for each comment. You may 
submit your comments and material by electronic means, mail, fax, or 
delivery to the Docket Management Facility at the address under 
ADDRESSES; but please submit your comments and material by only one 
means. If you submit them by mail or delivery, submit them in an 
unbound format, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, suitable for 
copying and electronic filing. If you submit them by mail and would 
like to know that they reached the Facility, please enclose a stamped, 
self-addressed postcard or envelope.
    Viewing comments and documents: To view comments, as well as 
documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, 
go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time and conduct a simple search using 
the docket number. You may also visit the Docket Management Facility in 
room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh 
Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments 
received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review the 
Department of Transportation's Privacy Act Statement in the Federal 
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or you may visit 
http://dms.dot.gov.
    Receipt of application; determination. On November 3, 2003, the 
Coast Guard and MARAD received an application from Gulf Landing LLC 
(``Gulf Landing''), 1301 McKinney, Suite 700, Houston, Texas 77010 for 
all Federal authorizations required for a license to own, construct and 
operate a deepwater port off the coast of Louisiana. Supplemental 
information was furnished at our request on December 12, 2003. On 
January 5, 2004, we determined that the application contains all 
information required by the Deepwater Port Act. The application and 
related documentation supplied by the applicant (except for certain 
protected information specified in 33 U.S.C. 1513) may be viewed in the 
public docket (see ADDRESSES).
    Background. According to the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended 
(the Act; 33 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.), a deepwater port is a fixed or 
floating manmade structure other than a vessel, or a group of 
structures, located beyond State seaward boundaries and used or 
intended for use as a port or terminal for the transportation, storage, 
and further handling of oil or natural gas for transportation to any 
State.
    A deepwater port must be licensed, and the Act provides that a 
license applicant submit detailed plans for its facility to the 
Secretary of Transportation, along with its application. The Secretary 
has delegated the processing of deepwater port applications to the 
Coast Guard and MARAD. The Act allows 21 days following receipt of the 
application to determine if it contains all required information. If it 
does, we must publish a notice of application in the Federal Register 
and summarize the plans. This notice is intended to meet those 
requirements of the Act and to provide general information about the 
procedure that will be followed in considering the application.
    Application procedure. The application is considered on its merits. 
Under the Act, we must hold at least one public hearing within 240 days 
from the date this notice is published. A separate Federal Register 
notice will be published to notify interested parties of any public 
hearings that are held. At least one public hearing must be held in 
each adjacent coastal state. Pursuant to 33 U.S.C. 1508, we designate 
Louisiana as an adjacent coastal state for this application. Other 
states may apply for adjacent coastal state status in accordance with 
33 U.S.C. 1508 (a)(2). After the last public hearing, Federal agencies 
have 45 days in which to comment on the application, and approval or 
denial of the application must follow within 90 days of the last public 
hearing. Details of the application process are described in 33 U.S.C. 
1504 and in 33 CFR part 148.
    Summary of the application. The application plan calls for 
construction of a deepwater port and associated anchorages in an area 
situated in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 38 miles south of 
Cameron, Louisiana in South Cameron Block 213, in water depth of 
approximately 55 feet, and adjacent to an existing shipping fairway 
servicing the Calcasieu River and area ports.
    Gulf Landing's terminal would be capable of storing up to 180,000 
cubic meters of LNG and vaporizing up to 1.2 billion cubic feet per 
day. Gulf Landing proposes to construct, own, and operate up to 5 
takeaway pipelines that would interconnect with existing natural gas 
pipelines located in the Gulf of Mexico. Gas would then be delivered to 
the onshore national pipeline grid for delivery to any consumption 
market east of the Rockies.
    The project would consist of two concrete gravity base structures 
(GBSs) housing the LNG containment facilities, along with topside 
unloading and vaporization structures, living quarters, and a ship 
berthing system.
    The terminal would be able to receive LNG carriers between 125,000 
and 160,000 cubic meter capacities and unload up to 135 LNG carriers 
per year. LNG carrier arrival frequency would be planned to match 
specified terminal gas delivery rates. All marine systems, 
communication, navigation aids and equipment necessary to conduct safe 
LNG carrier operations and receiving of product during specified 
atmospheric and sea states would be provided at the port.
    The regasification process would consist of lifting the LNG from 
storage tanks, pumping the cold liquid to pipeline pressure, subsequent 
vaporization across heat exchanging equipment and, finally, send-out 
through custody transfer metering to the gas pipeline network. No gas 
conditioning is required for the terminal since the incoming LNG would 
be pipeline quality.
    Five offshore interconnector pipelines, ranging from 16 to 36 
inches in diameter, would be constructed and would traverse a combined 
65.7 nautical miles. Each pipeline would transport gas from the 
terminal to an existing transmission pipeline where it would deliver 
the gas to the onshore U.S. gas pipeline network. On average, Gulf 
Landing expects the terminal would vaporize and deliver 1 billion cubic 
feet per day (Bcfd) of natural gas to the pipelines, with a peak daily 
send out rate of 1.2 Bcfd.


[[Page 3167]]


    Dated: January 12, 2004.
Joseph J. Angelo,
Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and Environmental 
Protection, Coast Guard.

Raymond R. Barberesi,
Director, Office of Ports and Domestic Shipping, U.S. Maritime 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-1267 Filed 1-21-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P