[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 193 (Friday, October 8, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56349-56350]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-22048]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[Docket No. MARAD-2019-0011]


Deepwater Port License Application: SPOT Terminal Services, LLC--
Draft General Conformity Determination

AGENCY: Maritime Administration, Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Notice of Draft General Conformity Determination.

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SUMMARY: The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard 
(USCG) announce the availability of the Draft General Conformity 
Determination to ensure that the air emissions associated with the Sea 
Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) Deepwater Port Project (Project or SPOT 
Project) conform with the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP). A 
Notice of Application that summarized the SPOT Deepwater Port License 
Application was published in the Federal Register on March 4, 2019. A 
Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and 
Notice of Public Scoping Meetings was published in the Federal Register 
on March 7, 2019. A Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental 
Impact Statement (EIS) and Notice of Public Meetings was published in 
the Federal Register on February 7, 2020. This notice incorporates the 
aforementioned Federal Register notices by reference. The SPOT Project 
proposes to provide United States (U.S.) crude oil loading services on 
very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and other crude oil carriers for 
export to the global market. Publication of this notice begins a 30-day 
comment period, requests public participation in the general conformity 
review process, and provides information on how to participate in this 
process.

DATES: To ensure your comments are considered, MARAD and the USCG 
request that all comments be submitted to the http://www.regulations.gov website or the Federal Docket Management Facility 
as detailed in the ADDRESSES section below, 30 days from the date of 
publication.

ADDRESSES: The SPOT Deepwater Port License Application, the Draft EIS, 
this Draft General Conformity Determination, and other associated 
documents are available for viewing at the Federal eRulemaking portal 
at http://www.regulations.gov under docket number MARAD-2019-0011 
(https://www.regulations.gov/docket/MARAD-2019-0011). The Final EIS and 
Final General Conformity Determination, when published, will be 
announced and be available at the Regulations.gov website.
    The public docket for the SPOT Deepwater Port License Application 
is maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket 
Management Facility, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 
New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590. Comments on the Draft 
General Conformity Determination may be submitted to this address and 
must include the docket number for this project, which is MARAD-2019-
0011. The Federal Docket Management Facility's telephone number is 202-
366-9317 or 202-366-9826; the fax number is 202-493-2251.
    We encourage you to submit comments electronically through the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. If you submit 
your comments electronically, it is not necessary to also submit a hard 
copy by mail. If you cannot submit material using http://www.regulations.gov, please contact either Mr. Matthew Layman, USCG, or 
Dr. Efrain Lopez, MARAD, as listed in the following FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document. This section provides 
alternate instructions for submitting written comments. Additionally, 
if you go to the online docket and sign up for email alerts, you will 
be notified when comments are posted.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Matthew Layman, Project Manager, 
USCG, telephone: 202-372-1421, email: [email protected]; or Dr. 
Efrain Lopez, Project Manager, Office of Deepwater Ports and Port 
Conveyance, MARAD, telephone: 202-366-9761, email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Request for Comments

    We request public comments or other relevant information related to 
the Draft General Conformity Determination for the proposed SPOT 
deepwater port. These comments will be considered in development of the 
Final General Conformity Determination. MARAD and the USCG prefer that 
comments be submitted electronically. Regardless of the method you use 
to submit comments or material, all submissions will be posted without 
change to the Federal Docket Management Facility website (https://www.regulations.gov/docket/MARAD-2019-0011) and will include any 
personal information you provide. Therefore, submitting this 
information makes it public. You may wish to read the Privacy and Use 
Notice that is available on the http://www.regulations.gov website, and 
the Department of Transportation (DOT) Privacy Act Notice that appeared 
in the Federal Register on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), see Privacy 
Act section of this document. You may view docket submissions at the 
DOT Docket Management Facility or electronically at the http://www.regulations.gov website.

Background

    On January 31, 2019, MARAD and USCG received an application from 
SPOT for all Federal authorizations required for a license to own, 
construct, and operate a deepwater port for the export of oil. The 
proposed deepwater port would be located in Federal waters 
approximately 27.2 to 30.8 nautical miles off the coast of Brazoria 
County, Texas. Texas was designated as the Adjacent Coastal State for 
the SPOT license application.
    The Federal agencies involved held a public scoping meeting in 
connection with the evaluation of the SPOT license application. The 
public scoping meeting was held in Lake Jackson, Texas on March 20, 
2019. The transcript of the scoping meeting is included on the public 
docket located at https://www.regulations.gov/document/MARAD-2019-0011-0019. The Federal agencies also held a Draft EIS public

[[Page 56350]]

comment meeting to receive comments on the Draft EIS. The public 
comment meeting was held in Lake Jackson, Texas on February 26, 2020. A 
second 30-day public comment period due to COVID began on May 1, 2021 
and ended on May 31, 2021. The transcripts of the DEIS public comment 
meetings are also included on the public docket at https://www.regulations.gov/document/MARAD-2019-0011-0019-1192.
    The purpose of this Draft General Conformity Determination is to 
ensure that the air emissions associated with the SPOT Project conform 
with the Texas SIP in accordance with 40 CFR part 93, subpart B. The 
Draft General Conformity Determination is currently available for 
public review at the Federal docket website: http://www.regulations.gov 
under docket number MARAD-2019-0011.
    This review and determination is triggered by air emissions from 
construction activities proposed by SPOT Terminals, LLC (the Applicant) 
that would exceed the applicable General Conformity de minimis 
threshold of 50 tons per year of nitrogen oxides or volatile organic 
compounds set by Determinations of Attainment by the Attainment Date, 
Extensions of the Attainment Date, and Reclassification of Several 
Areas Classified as Moderate for the 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air 
Quality Standards, published in the Federal Register on August 23, 2019 
(84 FR 44238), within the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) area. The 
HGB area includes Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, 
Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller counties, and extends 9 nautical miles 
offshore over state water.

Summary of the License Application

    SPOT is proposing to own, construct, and operate a deepwater port 
terminal in the Gulf of Mexico to export domestically produced crude 
oil. Use of the deepwater port would include the loading of various 
grades of crude oil at flow rates of up to 85,000 barrels per hour 
(bph). The SPOT deepwater port would allow for up to two very large 
crude carriers (VLCCs) or other crude oil carriers to moor at single 
point mooring (SPM) buoys and connect with the deepwater port via 
floating crude oil hoses and floating vapor recovery hoses. The maximum 
frequency of loading VLCCs or other crude oil carriers would be 2 
million barrels per day, 365 days per year.
    The proposed SPOT Deepwater Port (DWP) would be located in Federal 
waters of the Gulf of Mexico, in Galveston Area Outer Continental Shelf 
lease blocks 463 and A-59, approximately 27.2 to 30.8 nautical miles 
off the coast of Brazoria County, Texas, in water depths of 
approximately 115 feet. Onshore components of the proposed Project 
would be located in both Brazoria and Harris counties.
    The overall project would consist of both onshore and offshore 
marine components. The onshore components would consist of:
     Modifications to the existing Enterprise Crude Houston 
(ECHO) Terminal, including four electric motor-driven mainline crude 
oil pumps, four electric motor-driven booster crude oil pumps, and one 
measurement skid to support delivery of crude oil to the proposed 
Oyster Creek Terminal;
     One 50.1-mile, 36-inch-diameter ECHO to Oyster Creek 
Pipeline;
     One pipeline interconnection from the existing Rancho II 
36-inch-diameter pipeline to the ECHO to Oyster Creek Pipeline (Rancho 
II Junction);
     A new Oyster Creek Terminal on approximately 140 acres of 
land, including six electric motor-driven mainline crude oil pumps with 
the capacity to push crude oil to the offshore pipelines at a rate of 
up to 85,000 bph, four electric motor-driven booster crude oil pumps, 
seven aboveground storage tanks (each with a capacity of 685,000 
barrels [600,000 barrels of working storage]) for a total onshore 
storage capacity of approximately 4.8 million barrels (4.2 million 
barrels working storage) of crude oil, metering equipment, two 
permanent and one portable vapor combustion units, and a firewater 
system;
     Two collocated 12.2-mile, 36-inch-diameter Oyster Creek to 
Shore Pipelines; and
     Ancillary facilities for the onshore pipelines, including 
ten mainline valves, of which six would be along the ECHO to Oyster 
Creek Pipeline and four along the Oyster Creek to Shore Pipelines, pig 
launchers for the ECHO to Oyster Creek Pipeline, and pig launchers and 
receivers for the Oyster Creek to Shore Pipelines.
    The offshore and marine components would consist of:
     Two collocated, bi-directional, 46.9-mile, 36-inch-
diameter crude oil offshore pipelines for crude oil delivery from the 
Oyster Creek Terminal to the platform;
     One fixed offshore platform with eight piles, four decks, 
and three vapor combustion units;
     Two SPM buoys to concurrently moor two VLCCs or other 
crude oil carriers with capacities between 120,000 and 320,000 
deadweight tonnage for loading up to 365 days per year, including 
floating crude oil and vapor recovery hoses;
     Four pipeline end manifolds (PLEMs)--two per SPM buoy--to 
provide the interconnection between the SPOT DWP and the SPM buoys;
     Four 0.66-nautical mile, 30-inch-diameter pipelines (two 
per PLEM) to deliver crude oil from the platform to the PLEMs;
     Four 0.66-nautical mile, 16-inch diameter vapor recovery 
pipelines (two per PLEM) to connect the VLCC or other crude oil carrier 
to the three vapor combustion units on the platform.
     Three service vessel moorings, located in the southwest 
corner of Galveston Area lease block 463; and
     An anchorage area in Galveston Area lease block A-59, 
which would not contain any infrastructure.
    As stated, the purpose of this notice is to announce the 
availability of the Draft General Conformity Determination to ensure 
that the SPOT Project conforms with the Texas SIP. Comments are 
welcomed.

Privacy Act

    Regardless of the method used for submitting comments or materials, 
all submissions will be posted, without change, to the http://www.regulations.gov website and will include any personal information 
you provide. Therefore, submitting this information to the docket makes 
it public. You may wish to read the Privacy and Security Notice and the 
User Notice that are available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2005/03/24/05-5823/establishment-of-a-new-system-of-records-notice-for-the-federal-docket-management-system. The Privacy Act notice 
regarding the Federal Docket Management System is available in the 
March 24, 2005 issue of the Federal Register (70 FR 15086).

(Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1501 et seq., 49 CFR 1.93(h)).

    By Order of the Acting Maritime Administrator.
T. Mitchell Hudson, Jr.,
Secretary, Maritime Administration.
[FR Doc. 2021-22048 Filed 10-7-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-81-P