Excelerate's Excellent Week: Federal approval of Offshore Mass. LNG Terminal Followed by Opening of

Published Feb 15, 2007 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

For the second time in just two weeks, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal has received federal approval in the State of Massachusetts. The U.S. Maritime Administration’s record of decision to grant a deepwater port license to Northeast Gateway Energy Bridge LLC was issued on February 7. In that document, MARAD’s Administrator, Sean Connaughton, said, “…the Northeast Gateway Deepwater Port will be in the national interest and consistent with national security and other national policy goals and objectives, including energy sufficiency.”

In January, Suez Energy North America also received approval from MARAD for its own LNG facility, the Neptune offshore LNG facility. Both terminals also were endorsed by outgoing MA Governor and Presidential aspirant, Mitt Romney. The Excelerate license, granted with conditions, will cost about $200 million to build and will use undersea pipelines to supply LNG to the region’s energy network. Excelerate’s Northeast Gateway Deepwater Port LNG facility in Massachusetts Bay, located 13 miles south southeast of Gloucester, could be operational in December 2007.

MARAD’s approval of Excelerate’s Massachusetts facility was followed closely by the announcement that Excelerate Energy had officially opened the first-ever LNG Gas Port
At Teesport, UK. According to an Excelerate press release. “At the Teesside GasPort, the company’s Energy Bridge vessel Excelsior docked alongside a dedicated jetty where it connected to the onshore facility that feeds into the UK gas grid - the National Transmission System (NTS). Excelerate Energy’s specially designed Energy Bridge vessels allow LNG to be revaporized to gas onboard the ships so that it can be directly fed into natural gas pipelines. Traditional LNG ships must deliver their cargo as liquid to onshore terminals that then convert it to gas. Excelerate Energy’s Teesside GasPort was built with the initial capacity to import up to four LNG cargoes per month, each of which contains approximately three billion cubic feet of natural gas.”

The discharge of Excelsior’s cargo to the Teesside GasPort was preceded by the first-ever full cargo commercial transfer of LNG, involving 132,000 cubic meters of cargo, at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, just north of Scotland. The new Teesside GasPort will deliver at peak rates of up to 600 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to the UK market. The Teesside GasPort is Excelerate Energy’s second operational LNG port. Another Excelerate deepwater port is located approximately 116 miles off the coast of Louisiana and received its first cargo delivery in March 2005.

•About Excelerate Energy

Excelerate Energy, L.L.C., based in The Woodlands, Texas, is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer and marketer that’s redefining the way LNG moves around the globe with its unique logistical services and trading platform. Leveraging its proprietary Energy Bridge technology and its growing network of market access points, the company has developed the Excelerate GasNet, which connects LNG suppliers and customers in a way that minimizes costs for both while maximizing the value of each delivery. Excelerate Energy’s fleet of Energy Bridge vessels combined with downstream investments in deepwater port Gateways and GasPorts give the company the equivalent of a flexible, global “pipeline” that can transport LNG from virtually any point to any other point -facilitating delivery to the highest value markets around the world. For more information please visit www.excelerateenergy.com.

Excelerate Energy is currently committed to a fleet of five regasification vessels capable of serving this project. The first two vessels, Excelsior and Excellence, are currently in service with a third sister ship to be delivered in October 2006. The remaining two ships will be delivered in 2008 and 2009 respectively.