Floating LNG terminal OK'd off Rosarito coast
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050422-9...
Project would be built 5 miles from Rosarito
By Diane Lindquist
April 22, 2005
Mexico's environmental agency has approved another liquefied natural gas receiving terminal for Baja California.
The $55 million floating project would be built about five miles off the coast of Rosarito Beach by Moss Maritime, a global leader in LNG tanker
construction, and Mexican partner Terminales y Almacenes Maritimos de Mexico (TAMMSA).
Several other federal and local permits are needed before construction can begin for the terminal, which would start operating in 2008, said Lucy
Oca?a, the project's public relations director.
They include the approval of Mexico's federal energy commission and the transportation and communication secretariat. In addition, Rosarito Beach
would have to grant a land-use permit for a small, on-shore control station.
The environmental permit, which addresses the impact on the natural habitat and is one of the key permits required, was granted in record time. The
partnership applied for the permit to the Secretaria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat) in February.
"This concept has less impact on the environment compared to shore-based and gravity-based platforms," Oca?a said.
The process took more time for Sempra Energy, which plans an $800 million onshore terminal north of Ensenada, and ChevronTexaco, which envisions a
$650 million platform that would be secured to the ocean bed near the Coronado Islands.
Both of those ventures have gained the necessary approvals to start construction, but Sempra's LNG terminal is being challenged in Mexican courts and
is under investigation by Baja California's legislature.
"Fifty-five million is peanuts," said George Baker, a Houston-based Mexican energy consultant.
By converting an LNG tanker into a floating storage and regasification unit ? known in the energy industry as an FSRU ? the developers can
significantly slash the cost of a project, Oca?a said.
Because the terminal will float, she said, it will have less impact on the marine, land and air conditions where the FSRU will operate.
The project's storage capacity is expected to be 4.4 million cubic feet, she said, while the regasification facility would process additional amounts
of the fuel.
"We would process for other companies," she said. "We only would offer the service."
Energy industry analysts note that companies using Moss' FSRU would be able to buy LNG on spot markets, which are likely to offer a considerable cost
savings compared with long-term supply agreements reached by ChevronTexaco, Sempra and Shell, which plans to process liquefied natural gas at the
Sempra terminal.
Companies using the Moss-TAMMSA facility also would have the option of selling the natural gas on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border. The ship
would be connected to the Baja California natural gas pipeline system through a sub-sea pipeline.
Terminales y Almacenes Maritimos de Mexico is owned by Compania Energeticade Mexico S.A. de C.V., or CEMSA, and Moss Maritime of Norway. Moss is
wholly owned by Saipem/ENI, a major gas and oil pipeline construction contractor and drilling company. ENI is Italy's national oil and gas company.
A similar Moss-designed FSRU is being installed in Livorno, Italy.
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