A new small-scale LNG export terminal being developed in Jacksonville, Florida by Eagle LNG Partners has been given a green light by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Called Jacksonville LNG, the US$500M facility is the latest in a raft of projects underpinning LNG bunkering infrastructure in the US.
With a nominal production capacity of about 1.0 mta, storage capacity for 45,000 m3 and marine- and truck-loading capabilities, Jacksonville LNG would support the switch from dirtier carbon-intensive fossil fuels such as diesel and coal to more clean-burning LNG for power generation in the Caribbean. The terminal and export facility will be located on the north bank of the St Johns River in Jacksonville, with three LNG trains, each with a nominal capacity of 0.33 mta of LNG for export. Marine facilities will have two loading arms and have the capacity to berth LNG carriers up to 45,000 m3.
Jacksonville LNG’s tanker truck loading facilities will have a dual bay capable of loading 260 to 520 LNG trucks per year.
Feed gas will be delivered to Jacksonville LNG via a 36-m pipeline that will be constructed, owned, and operated by Peoples Gas, a subsidiary of TECO Energy.
“As one of only a handful of greenfield LNG project proponents to obtain their FERC order, and the only project devoted to provisioning small-scale LNG projects in the Caribbean basin, Eagle LNG is one large step closer to delivering clean-burning, affordable, domestically produced US natural gas,” said Eagle LNG president Sean Lalani. Added Mr Lalani, “Numerous independent studies have shown that sourcing LNG for power generation allows Caribbean island nations the ability to substantially reduce power costs and simultaneously reduce CO2 emissions by 30-40% as compared to fuel oil and coal.”
Eagle LNG operates Maxville LNG, an existing small-scale facility in Jacksonville that supplies LNG to two US-flag, dual-fuel container/roro ships operated by Crowley Maritime. Operating between Jacksonville and San Juan, Puerto Rico, those ships are refuelled at an LNG bunkering station at the JAXPORT Talleyrand Marine Terminal on the St Johns River in the Port of Jacksonville.
LNG is shipped from the Maxville LNG facility via ISO container to the Caribbean market. “Exports in small volumes from our existing Maxville LNG facility are already providing low cost, domestically produced US natural gas as an early, stable fuel source for the Caribbean,” said Mr Lalani. The proposed Jacksonville LNG export facility will not only drive and create economic growth in Florida and the US, it is crucial for the expansion of new US/Caribbean LNG trade opportunities,” added Mr Lalani.
At the centre of that economic growth is the Port of Jacksonville, which is evolving into a small-scale LNG hub in the US. Jacksonville LNG joins a number of other LNG bunkering infrastructure projects in the US southeast. Q-LNG, NorthStar Midstream and Crowley Maritime have all ordered or are building LNG bunker articulated tug barges (ATBs) that will operate on the US east coast, supporting American and internationally flagged dual-fuel vessels, as well as transporting LNG cargoes to the Caribbean.
Starting 2021, NorthStar’ Midstream’s 5,400-m3 ATB will source LNG from JAX LNG, owned by NorthStar and Pivotal LNG, in Jacksonville, while Q-LNG’s 4,000-m3 Q-LNG 4000 will load cargoes at the Elba LNG facility in Savannah, Georgia.
Jacksonville’s only currently operating bunker barge is 2,200-m3 Clean Jacksonville, which is used to refuel Tote’s 3,100-TEU, dual-fuel container ships, Taíno and El Coquí.
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