Gulf Gateway Deepwater Port
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Gulf Gateway Deepwater Port is a facility for docking and unloading liquefied natural gas tankers.
Gulf Gateway is owned by Excelerate Energy Limited Partnership. It is located in Block 603 of the West Cameron Area, South Addition at a distance of approximately 116 miles (187 km) from the Louisiana coast, Gulf Gateway has a baseload capacity of 500 million cubic feet (14,000,000 m³) per day with a peak capacity of 690 million cubic feet (20,000,000 m³) per day. Unlike the four LNG terminals which were built in the US before it, Gulf Gateway handles a special type of LNG tanker which has the revaporization equipment on the ship rather than as a part of the terminal.[1]
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[edit] History
Offshore construction of Gulf Gateway commenced in August 2004 and was completed in February 2005 at a cost of approximately US $70 million. First cargo delivery occurred on March 17, 2005 from the world’s first EBRV Excelsior.
[edit] Design and Operation
Gulf Gateway is comprised of the following components:
- A Submerged Turret Loading buoy, anchor lines, a flexible riser, and a subsea manifold.
- A gas metering platform for measurement of volume and composition of gas flowing to downstream pipelines.
- A 1.89-mile (3.04 km), 20-inch diameter Offloading Pipeline from the subsea manifold to the metering platform.
- A 1.37-mile (2.20 km), 18-inch diameter pipeline from the metering platform to the Blue Water Pipeline.
- A 3.92-mile (6.31 km), 20-inch diameter pipeline from the metering platform to the Sea Robin Pipeline.
Once an LNG tanker reaches Gulf Gateway, it retrieves and connects to the buoy and commences regasification of the LNG on-board. Natural gas is then discharged through the buoy, into the flexible riser and delivered through the offloading pipeline to the metering platform. On the metering platform, the natural gas flows through one of two gas measurement meters – one measuring gas destined for the Sea Robin system and a second measuring gas to be delivered to the Blue Water system.
After metering, the gas pressure is reduced by regulators on the platform so that the gas can enter either the Sea Robin or Blue Water system at the pressure prescribed by the operator’s tariff for each of those systems. The pipeline extending to the Sea Robin system crosses portions of West Cameron Blocks 602 and 601 and interconnects with Sea Robin on East Cameron Block 335. The second pipeline from the platform crosses a portion of West Cameron Block 600 and interconnects with the Blue Water system at West Cameron Block 601.
The natural gas transported by the Sea Robin and Blue Water Pipelines comes ashore on the Louisiana coast near Henry Hub (trading point for NYMEX natural gas contracts), providing substantial access to downstream markets and gas processing infrastructure. With the gas processing infrastructure in place onshore and substantial pipeline capacity available, Gulf Gateway is able to receive natural gas from virtually any source in the world and effectively deliver it to onshore markets.
