Golden Pass LNG has added more than 280 acres to its reinvestment zone designated by Jefferson County as it continues to push toward a 2024 start date for its first of three liquefaction trains under construction.
The Jefferson County Commissioners Court unanimously approved the addition at a Tuesday meeting, adding to the more than 1,100 acres in Sabine Pass the county designated for the venture in 2013 and 2014.
The venture, currently a partnership between Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum, has owned land on Jefferson County’s coast since at least 2005, when it started operation as a liquid natural gas import facility. It announced final plans for a $10 billion export project in early 2019.
The C-shaped tract of land southwest of the facility currently has cattle grazing on it, but Renny DeVille, a spokesperson with the company, said it would soon have service roads running through it to aid in construction and future maintenance.
“This is buffer land in the footprint of the project and directly adjacent to processing trains on the property,” he said.
The land was purchased in January 2019 and was assessed at $562,000 by the Jefferson County Appraisal District.
Crews are still moving a lot of dirt, Deville said, and are making progress toward its 2024 goal despite the coronavirus pandemic and related precautions. He said there weren’t any expected delays so far, but a long list of protocols is in place to protect worker safety.
“We even had random temperature checks throughout the day,” he said. “It’s going well.”
The venture recently had to request a deadline change with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to extend its deadline for the start of service to align the project with its service dates. The deadline set by FERC was previously scheduled for the end of 2021.
In a FERC application filed at the end of April, one of the ventures building a pipeline intended to eventually connect to Golden Pass showed it planned to have its facility online by the second half of 2022 to comply with an agreement with Golden Pass.
The Enable Gulf Run Pipeline will connect to the Golden Pass Pipeline at Starks, Louisiana, and is contracted to serve the facility for 20 years. Enable’s project will make up about 67% of the facility’s capacity.
Golden Pass has a 20-year agreement with Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America for transportation service to the terminal.
Article Republished: https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Golden-Pass-reinvestment-zone-grows-15251981.php#photo-18818929
Photo: MICHAEL STRAVATO, STR / NYT
