By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 19 -- Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cheniere Energy Inc., Houston, has initiated an open season for firm capacity on the Cheniere Creole Trail natural gas pipeline in southern Louisiana. The system could transmit as much as 3.3 bcfd of natural gas. The binding open season will conclude on June 1.
Cheniere hopes soon to apply to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a permit to construct and operate the Creole Trail LNG terminal on the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Cameron Parish, La., and the pipeline system to deliver gas from the terminal and from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal, currently under construction.
Pipeline infrastructure would consist of two mainlines. A 118-mile transmission line would deliver gas from the proposed Creole Trail LNG terminal through Cameron, Calcasieu, Beauregard, Allen, Jefferson Davis, and Acadia Parishes to a terminus near Rayne, La. The second mainline would be a 47-mile, 42-in. pipeline from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal to a point south of Sulphur, La., where it would become part of the dual 42-in. system extending to the terminus near Rayne. The system would connect with as many as 15 interstate and intrastate pipelines having transportation capacity totaling more than 12 bcfd.
Total Creole Trail LNG terminal and pipeline system cost is estimated at $900 million.
The pipeline system is targeted to be in service by yearend 2008, when the Sabine Pass terminal is slated for completion (OGJ Online, Apr. 12, 2005).
The Creole Trail LNG terminal, planned to be in service in 2009, would have facilities capable of regasifying 3.3 bcfd of LNG and would contain two unloading docks to handle vessels carrying as much as 250,000 cu m of LNG. Four 160,000 cu m storage tanks will have a total LNG storage equivalent of 13.5 bcf of gas.