By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 2 -- Dominion Resources Inc., Richmond, Va., is pumping nitrogen into three miles of pipe at its Cove Point, Md., LNG terminal as part of the "cooling down" process prior to receiving a "commissioning load" of LNG "sometime that week" of its July 23 target date.
A company spokesman Wednesday told OGJ Online that the firm is talking with different suppliers about possible delivery dates. "One says Wednesday, another says Thursday. It will probably be sometime that week," he said.
Dominion Resources has invested some $180 million in the process of reactivating the LNG facility that it bought last year from Williams Cos. Inc., Tulsa, Okla., for $217 million. Cove Point LNG LP, owner of the terminal, was among assets sold by Williams in an effort to resolve liquidity problems.
Williams' efforts to reactivate the terminal were pushed back when local elected officials forced a rehearing by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of its 2001 decision in favor of reopening the facility in 2003 (OGJ Online, Dec. 20, 2001). In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) led the effort to overturn FERC's decision because local residents and officials feared LNG tankers might be hijacked and used to damage the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant four miles from that terminal.