Crown Landing LNG Terminal

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A liquified natural gas (LNG) off-loading and processing facility called the Crown Landing LNG Terminal is proposed in Logan Township, New Jersey on a 175-acre (0.71 km²) site along the Delaware River. The new facility would be one of only a handful of LNG off-loading and processing facilities in the United States, and would allow for the importation of LNG from anywhere in the world. Once the LNG is processed into natural gas, it will be transmitted throughout the Mid Atlantic and Northeastern United States via a number of interconnections with existing natural gas pipelines that are located near the terminal.

[edit] Lawsuit and regulatory approval

The facility would include a long off-loading pier that would technically enter the State of Delaware waters. Delaware is opposed to the project and filed a lawsuit in Federal court to stop the project from going forward on the basis that they control the waters in which part of the pier would be situated. Delaware lost the lawsuit in a Federal court ruling. However, the State of New Jersey is pursuing a lawsuit against Delaware in order to receive a clarification from the federal courts regarding projects that originate in New Jersey and enter Delaware waters. The United States Sumpreme Court, in a 6-2 decision released on March 31st, 2008, ruled "while Delaware cannot block ordinary projects from going forward on the Jersey side, the proposed BP project 'goes well beyond the ordinary or usual'." "It was within Delaware's authority to prohibit construction of the facility within its domain," the majority opinion said. [1] The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the Crown Landing LNG Terminal on June 15, 2006. [2]

The Crown Landing LNG Terminal is the first LNG terminal to undergo a strict United States Coast Guard project review, as required by a Federal law passed in recent years to address the energy industry's numerous and often controversial proposal for new LNG terminals in the coastal waters on the United States.

[edit] Capacity and design

The state of the art Crown Landing LNG Terminal, when completed in late 2008, will significantly increase natural gas supplies in the Northeastern United States. The proposed terminal would store up to 450,000 cubic meters of LNG equivalent to 9.2 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas, vaporize LNG into natural gas and send it out through connecting pipelines at a baseload rate of 1.2 Bcf, enough natural gas to supply the daily needs of about five million homes. The Crown Landing LNG terminal would bring in a new supply of natural gas, approximately 15 percent of current demand for natural gas in the Mid-Atlantic region, and therefore once on-line it should have a stabilizing effect on natural gas prices in the region by providing additional natural gas more reliably than distant suppliers as far away as the Gulf of Mexico. [3]

The LNG terminal will connect to three major natural gas pipeline systems serving the Northeastern United States. A new eleven mile (18 km) pipeline from the Crown Landing LNG Terminal, called the Logan Lateral Projects, will connect the new LNG terminal to a regional natural gas pipeline in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania, providing natural gas to the Mid-Atlantic region. The proposed pipeline also received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval in 2006. According to the developer of the project BP, when built, Crown Landing will be the most modern facility of its type in the United States.