Elba Island expansion inaugurated

The new expansion phase coming onstream at Southern LNG’s Savannah terminal is the third since the facility was reactivated in 2001

The Phase III project to further expand LNG receiving capacity at the Elba Island terminal on the Savannah River near Savannah, Georgia, US, was officially completed on 1 March 2010. Operated by Southern LNG, an El Paso affiliate, Elba Island has been provided with a fifth storage tank, a deepened docking basin, additional regasification capacity and a new pipeline connecting the terminal with additional parts of the southeastern US gas grid. A total of US$900 million has been invested in the expansion project.

The new 200,000m³ storage tank, which complements the three 65,000m³ units and one 160,000m³ unit at the site, has been built by CB&I and is the largest LNG storage tank in North America. The unit, which will be commissioned this summer, is capable of supplying all the natural gas needs of Georgia for four days.

The additional 15.3 billion m³/day of gas sendout capacity provided by the Phase III project’s three new vaporisers has boosted total regasification capacity at Elba Island to 49.6 million m³/day. Elba Island also has a new vapour handling system capable of dealing with cargo discharges from two ships simultaneously.

Elba Island received 51 LNG cargoes in 2009, close to the budgeted figure. The BG Group holds the access rights to the existing capacity at Elba Island and during the past year sourced LNG cargoes from a number of production plants in which it holds an interest, including the Atlantic LNG terminal in Trinidad, the Bioko Island terminal in Equatorial Guinea and the Idku LNG plant in Egypt.

Once the new Phase III facilities are fully operational and the gas supply is available later this year, Elba Island will commence receiving cargoes produced by the Qatargas 4 project’s large new 7.8 million tonnes of LNG per annum Super Train in Ras Laffan. Qatargas 4 is a 70/30 Qatar Petroleum/Shell joint venture, and agreements are in place for the supply of Qatargas 4 cargoes to Elba Island, Dubai and China, among other destinations.

Shell has acquired rights to one half of the new Phase III capacity at Elba Island to facilitate this Qatar traffic. The ships used to transport Qatargas 4 cargoes will include large vessels of the 216,000m³ Q-flex and 266,000m³ Q-max sizes. The new docking basin has been dredged and the terminal’s two jetties modified to accommodate vessels of such size. BG has secured the rights to the other half of the expansion capacity at Elba Island.

There is a second part to the Phase III expansion at Elba Island, encompassing the construction of a sixth storage tank. However, that part of the project has been postponed in view of the current weak demand for US LNG imports.

El Paso is also engaged in the construction of a new LNG receiving terminal in southern US. The Gulf LNG terminal is being built on the Bayou Casotte ship channel near Pascagoula, Mississippi. El Paso holds a 50 per cent stake in the project and will operate the terminal when it comes onstream in autumn 2011.

The Gulf LNG facility is being provided with two 160,000m³ tanks and will have a capacity to regasify about 37 million m³/day. The other partners in the project are Crest Investments of Houston and Sonangol, the Angolan state oil and gas company. LNG