[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 139 (Wednesday, July 21, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43618-43619]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-16590]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[USCG-2004-18474]


Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal 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, as amended, 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 March 18, 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-2004-18474 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 Ken Kusano at 202-267-1184, 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-
2004-18474), 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 May 25, 2004, the Coast 
Guard and MARAD received an application from Pearl Crossing LNG 
Terminal LLC, 800 Bell Street, Houston, TX 77002 for all federal 
authorizations required for a license to own, construct and operate a 
deepwater port off the coast of Louisiana with associated pipeline 
facilities. On July 8, 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 available 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 
Coast Guard and MARAD. The Act allows 21 days following receipt of the 
application to determine if it appears to contain 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 the adjacent coastal state for this application. Other 
states may apply for adjacent coastal state status in

[[Page 43619]]

accordance with 33 U.S.C. 1508 (a)(2). After the last public hearing, 
Federal agencies and the adjacent coastal State 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.
    The Coast Guard and MARAD plan to prepare an environmental impact 
statement (EIS) for this project. The EIS will also assess the 
environmental impact of an onshore pipeline that is part of the project 
proposal, even though an affiliate of Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal LLC 
must separately apply for and receive an authorization from the Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for that onshore pipeline. We have 
consulted with FERC and understand that the affiliate applied to FERC 
for onshore pipeline authorization under Docket Number CP04-374-000, 
CP04-375-000 and CP04-376-000. All comments related to this project, 
including the onshore pipeline, may be submitted in accordance with the 
guidance under ADDRESSES.
    Summary of the application. The application plan calls for the 
proposed deepwater port to be located outside State waters in the Gulf 
of Mexico on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), approximately 41 
miles (66 kilometers) south of the Louisiana coast in West Cameron 
Block 220. It will be located in a water depth of approximately 62 feet 
(19 meters). The proposed Pearl Crossing LNG Terminal is a concrete 
Gravity Based Structure (GBS). The terminal proposes to install two 
integral liquefied natural gas storage tanks and serve as the platform 
for vessels to offload and regasify LNG.
    The proposed GBS is a double-walled concrete structure, rectilinear 
in shape, that would measure approximately 590 feet (180 meters) long 
by 295 feet (90 meters) wide. The structure would rest on the seabed 
with a total terminal footprint (GBS plus jacket structures) area of 
approximately 12 acres (5 hectares). The terminal would include LNG 
storage tanks, equipment for receiving and vaporization of LNG, 
electric power generation, water purification, nitrogen generation, 
sewage treatment and accommodations for up to 60 persons. The total net 
working capacity of the two integral LNG storage tanks would be 250,000 
cubic meters (m3).
    Pearl Crossing would have the ability to accommodate two LNG 
carriers alongside that will have capacities ranging from 125,000 to 
250,000 m3 per vessel. This would allow one incoming LNG 
carrier to be secured to prepare to offload cargo, while another LNG 
carrier is completing an offloading cycle.
    Ship cargo transfer will use two loading arm packages (one on each 
side of the terminal), each consisting of five 16-inch-diameter (40-
centimeter) loading arms. LNG carriers would offload through four of 
the loading arms. Offloading rates are expected to equal 14,000 
m3 per hour of LNG. The fifth loading arm would be dedicated 
to vapor return from the terminal for pressure equalization between an 
LNG carrier and the storage tanks of Pearl Crossing.
    The regasification process would be accomplished through thirteen 
electric pumps that will supply 13,200 gallons per minute (50,000 
liters per minute) of seawater for the open rack vaporizers. The 
intakes will utilize passive, cylindrical wedge-wire-type screens with 
an automated air backwash system. The slot size would be 0.25 inch (6.4 
millimeters) or less to minimize impingement or entrainment of marine 
organisms. Seawater would be treated with hypochlorite produced by an 
electrolytic chlorination unit prior to entering the seawater pump 
intake lines.
    The applicant proposes to install two dedicated 42-inch-diameter 
(1,100 mm) offshore pipelines that will originate at the terminal and 
traverse the Gulf of Mexico in a northwesterly direction to the high 
water mark near Johnsons Bayou in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Each 
offshore pipeline would have a throughput capacity of 1.4 billion 
standard cubic feet per day (Bscfd) for a total peak capacity of 2.8 
Bscfd. Thereafter, the pipelines will continue onshore to multiple gas 
delivery points in Louisiana and come under FERC jurisdiction.
    Pearl Crossing Pipeline LLC will transport natural gas from the 
terminal's two offshore pipelines for further transportation. Gas will 
be transported to a metering and distribution station in Johnsons Bayou 
for delivery to several interstate and intrastate pipelines near the 
station. Once onshore, an additional 63.75 miles of 42-inch-diameter 
pipeline and five additional meter stations would be constructed. The 
pipeline would terminate near Starks, Louisiana, and requires separate 
permitting by FERC. There are no proposals for onshore storage.

    Dated: July 16, 2004.
Joseph J. Angelo,
Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and Environmental 
Protection, U.S. Coast Guard.
H. Keith Lesnick,
Senior Transportation Specialist, Deepwater Ports, Program Manager, 
U.S. Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-16590 Filed 7-20-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-15-P