[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 17 (Tuesday, January 27, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3934-3935]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-1614]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[USCG-2004-16877]


Cabrillo Port 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 23, 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-2004-16877 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 Commander Kevin Tone 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: 

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-
2004-16877), 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 81/2 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 September 3, 2003, the 
Coast Guard and MARAD received an application from BHP Billiton LNG 
International Inc. (``Port Cabrillo''), 1360 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 
150, Houston, Texas 77056-3020 for all federal authorizations required 
for a license to own, construct and operate a deepwater port off the 
coast of California. Supplemental information was furnished at our 
request on December 9, 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

[[Page 3935]]

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 California 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 Pacific Ocean, approximately 14 miles offshore of 
Ventura County, California, between the cities of Oxnard and Port 
Hueneme. There are no Mineral Management Service lease blocks involved 
with this project and the nearest lease block is Lease OCS-P 0202, 
Platform Gina, which is located in OCS waters 3.7 miles offshore of 
Port Hueneme. The facility would be adjacent to the existing San Pedro 
Channel shipping lane.
    Port Cabrillo's terminal would be a turret moored, ship hull-like 
offshore Floating, Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), and an 
interconnected send-out pipeline that would tie into the existing 
onshore natural gas distribution system of Southern California Gas 
(SoCalGas). The FSRU would include three independent Moss spherical 
storage tanks mounted within the vessel's hull, which would provide a 
total storage capacity of 276,000 cubic meters of LNG. The FSRU's deck 
would support LNG receiving and submerged combustion vaporization 
equipment and utilities, berthing accommodations for personnel, ship 
berthing and mooring system, and facilities for delivery of natural gas 
to a 30'' pipeline. The pipeline would be 21 miles in length and 
connect onshore at Ormond Beach (near Oxnard, CA) to an existing gas 
supply for distribution throughout the Southern California region.
    The mooring turret would be fixed to the seabed with an 8-point 
anchoring system, and consist of 3 flexible riser pipes and a Pipeline 
Ending Manifold (PLEM).
    The facility would be able to receive LNG carriers between 100,000 
and 220,000 cubic meter capacities. All marine systems, communication, 
navigation aids and equipment necessary to conduct safe LNG carrier 
operations and receipt of product during specified atmospheric and sea 
states would be provided at the port. LNG offload would be accomplished 
through use of up to 4, 16 diameter standard loading arm 
connections, and at a rate of up to 80,000 gallons per minute.
    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 an interconnected pipeline. No gas conditioning would be 
required for the terminal since the incoming LNG would be pipeline 
quality. Port Cabrillo expects the terminal would vaporize and deliver 
up to 0.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) of natural gas to the 
pipeline.

    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. 04-1614 Filed 1-26-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P