BajaNews - 7-30-2006 at 01:54 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20060729-9999-1b...
$1.5 billion project in Baja is now 40 percent complete
By Diane Lindquist
July 29, 2006
COSTA AZUL, Mexico ? First a Mexican flag appeared, then a 529-ton steel dome rose on a cushion of air yesterday morning to top off the second of two
storage tanks at Sempra's Energ?a Costa Azul liquefied natural gas project, 55 miles south of the border.
Raising the roof means the $1.5 billion project is 40 percent complete, Sempra LNG President Darcel Hulse told a group of business executives and
media representatives assembled at the massive project 14 miles north of Ensenada.
?We're building infrastructure that our children and grandchildren can enjoy,? Hulse said. ?This project will contribute a lot to Baja California and
the West Coast of North America.?
The two 17-story-tall tanks will hold enough liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to supply all of Mexico with the natural gas the country uses in a day and
a half, or enough to supply California with its natural gas needs for one day, he said.
Work on the 400-acre parcel of land began in March 2005 and is expected to be completed by early 2008, although efforts to stop it continue on both
sides of the border.
A pier is being built to receive oceangoing tankers that carry the fuel in liquid form, achieved by cooling it to minus 260 degrees and condensing it.
Not far away at the port of Ensenada, workers are building hollow-bodied caissons that will be floated off the coast of Costa Azul and sunk to create
a breakwater to protect the tankers.
Sempra, which has an agreement with BP and Tangguh LNG to provide natural gas from Indonesia, is sharing capacity at the site with Shell Oil Co.,
which plans to bring its natural gas supplies from Sakhalin Island off Russia's eastern coast.
?It's just a great milestone for the project,? said Cornelis van der Bom, president of Shell Mexico. ?It's a tribute to all those who have worked from
the inception to now.?
In a pitch to further expand the facility, Sempra recently offered other companies the opportunity to share capacity at Costa Azul. A company
spokesman said there is considerable interest, but declined to identify any parties with which it is negotiating.
Techint of Mexico, Black & Veatch of Kansas City, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Tokyo and Vinci Construction Grands Projects of France are doing
the main engineering, construction and procurement for the project, including the raising of the storage tank's dome yesterday.
A joint venture involving the Costain Group of Britain and China Harbour, one of China's largest construction groups, is building the breakwater.