By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 29 -- Excelerate Energy LLC subsidiary Northeast Gateway Energy Bridge LLC has received its deepwater port license from the US Maritime Administration (Marad) for its Northeast Gateway deepwater LNG importation facility in Massachusetts Bay.
Construction will begin soon, and gas deliveries from the Northeast Gateway facility to Massachusetts and the rest of New England are anticipated by yearend.
The LNG facility will be designed to handle peak deliveries of as much as 800 MMcfd of gas. During normal operations the facility will be able to deliver about 500 MMcfd of gas, or 20% of New England's current annual gas consumption.
The port's infrastructure will feature two submerged turret loading buoys supplied by Advanced Production & Loading Inc.
Excelerate Energy will build and own the Northeast Gateway deepwater port 18 miles east of Boston. It will be operated by Skaugen Offshore and will accommodate Excelerate's proprietary Energy Bridge Regasification Vessel (EBRV) fleet operated by Exmar NV.
Spectra Energy, formerly Duke Energy, will build a 16-mile subsea pipeline from its existing HubLine to the deepwater port site to transfer gas from the vessels into New England's gas pipeline network.
Northeast Gateway will be the first new LNG importation facility to serve the east coast in more than 25 years. And it is the world's second deepwater LNG importation facility.
The first, Gulf Gateway, 116 miles south of Cameron Parish, La., in the Gulf of Mexico, is owned and operated also by Excelerate Energy, which recently increased its LNG vessel fleet through equity investments in three new EBRVs to be constructed by 2010. This brings the company's LNG vessel involvement to eight regasification vessels and one traditional LNG carrier.
