The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has notified Dominion, Richmond, Va., that it will issue its environmental assessment (EA) for the Cove Point LNG liquefaction and export project on May 15.
The proposed export facility will be within the 131-acre footprint of the LNG import facility, which has been in Calvert County for 40 years. No new pipelines, storage tanks, or piers are needed at the facility. The company needs about 50 permits and approvals before construction can begin.
Dominion filed notice for the prefiling process with FERC in June 2012, stating that it was planning to add export capability at its Cove Point terminal in Lusby, Md., in Calvert County on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. FERC has been researching and analyzing the application since that time.
Dominion filed the application, which now totals more than 21,000 pages, in April 2013.
The assessment will come 8 months after US Department of Energy approved Dominion's application to export LNG from its terminal to countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with the US (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2013).