Ports for Natural Gas Win Approval

U.S. energy regulators Thursday approved plans by San Diego-based Sempra Energy and other companies that would greatly expand the nation’s capacity to import liquefied natural gas in a move to meet rising demand and keep prices from soaring.

Projects to build or expand five terminals in Louisiana, Texas, New Jersey and Maryland were approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at a meeting in Washington.

The plans, submitted by Sempra Energy, Dominion Resources Inc., Cheniere Energy Inc. and BP, would raise the country’s capacity to import liquefied natural gas by 9.7 billion cubic feet a day. The U.S. can handle 5.2 billion cubic feet a day at five existing sites, according to the commission.

“The increase in natural gas supplies represented by these projects, once constructed, would have a significant impact on domestic natural gas prices in the future,” commission Chairman Joseph Kelliher said.

The U.S. is expected to more than double its annual imports of liquefied natural gas to 4.4 trillion cubic feet by 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department. In addition to the projects approved Thursday, FERC will consider 14 applications to build or expand facilities in the U.S.

“If you need the gas, you have to build the terminals,” Abdullah bin Hamad Attiyah, Qatar’s oil minister, said at a news conference Thursday in Washington. Qatar aims to be the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas to the U.S.

Not all of the projects approved by FERC will be built, said George Beranek, a manager in PFC Energy’s gas group in Washington.

“There isn’t room for all the terminals that have been proposed,” he said.

The commission previously had approved new terminal projects that would be capable of handling 12.6 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas a day.

Among the projects getting the go-ahead Thursday was the $800-million Port Arthur terminal owned by Sempra Energy. The facility, 85 miles east of Houston, would be able to handle 1.5 billion to 3 billion cubic feet of gas a day.