[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 98 (Thursday, May 20, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29142-29143]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-11391]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[USCG-2004-17659]


Compass Port LLC Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port License 
Application

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS, and 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, that they have 
received an application for the licensing of a liquefied natural gas 
(LNG) 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 January 17, 2005, 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-2004-17659 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 e-mail 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-
2004-17659), 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 March 29, 2004, the Coast 
Guard and MARAD received an application from Compass Port LLC (Compass 
Port), a wholly owned subsidiary of ConocoPhillips Company, PO Box 
2197, Houston, Texas 77252-2197 for all federal authorizations required 
for a license to own, construct and operate a deepwater port off the 
coast of Alabama. The application was received on March 29, 2004. A 
portion of the initial submission was in a format not compatible with 
our software. However, by mid-April, we had received the information in 
a suitable format to allow us to complete our review. On April 27, 
2004, we determined that the application contains all information 
required by the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1501 
et seq. (``the Act''). The application and related documentation 
supplied by the applicant (except for certain protected information 
specified in 33 U.S.C. 1513) will be made available for viewing in the 
public docket (see ADDRESSES).
    Background. According to the Act, 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 U.S. 
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

[[Page 29143]]

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 
Alabama 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 the 
proposed deepwater port to be located in the Mobile Outer Continental 
Shelf (OCS) and Mississippi Sound areas of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, 
approximately 11 miles off Dauphin Island, Alabama in lease block 
Mobile 910. Compass Port would serve as an LNG receiving, storage, and 
regasification facility, located in approximately 70 feet of water 
depth, and will incorporate docking facilities, unloading facilities, 
two LNG storage tanks, regasification facilities, an offshore pipeline 
and support facilities.
    Compass Port proposes the installation of approximately 26.8 miles 
of 36-inch diameter natural gas transmission pipelines on the OCS. The 
proposed pipeline would connect the deepwater port with existing gas 
distribution pipelines near Coden, Alabama.
    The deepwater port facility would consist of two concrete gravity-
based structures (GBS) that would contain the LNG storage tanks, LNG 
carrier berthing provisions, LNG unloading arms, low and high pressure 
pumps, vaporizers, metering, utility systems, general facilities and 
accommodations. The terminal would be able to receive LNG carriers up 
to 255,000 cubic meters cargo capacity. LNG carrier arrival frequency 
would be planned to match specified terminal gas delivery rates. LNG 
would be stored in two integral full-containment tanks, each with a 
capacity of 150,000 cubic meters, and a combined capacity of 300,000 
cubic meters of LNG.
    The regasification process would consist of lifting the LNG from 
the storage tanks, pumping the LNG to pipeline pressure, vaporizing 
across heat exchanging equipment, and sending out through the pipeline 
to custody transfer metering for ultimate delivery to downstream 
interstate pipeline capacity. No gas conditioning is required since the 
incoming LNG will meet the gas quality specifications of the downstream 
pipelines.
    The deepwater port would be designed to handle a nominal capacity 
of 7.5 million metric tons per annum of LNG. This is equivalent to an 
average delivery of approximately 1.02 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/
d) of pipeline quality gas.

    Dated: May 12, 2004.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and 
Environmental Protection, U.S. Coast Guard.
Raymond R. Barberesi,
Director, Office of Ports and Domestic Shipping, U.S. Maritime 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-11391 Filed 5-19-04; 8:45 am]
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