The company expects authorization this year from the US Coast Guard for its application to develop a $440-million LNG terminal at MPEH, 60km east of Venice, La.
The 1-billion cuft/d deepwater LNG port would be accompanied by on-site storage in the 3.2-km diameter subsea salt caverns to be leached at the site, enabling the proposed LNG facility to have an aggregate deliverability of 2.5 billion cuft/d, including deliveries from storage. Designs include 28 billion cuft of cavern storage.
MPEH is on Main Pass Block 299 in 69m of water and near shipping channels. Existing platforms and infrastructure at the site, designed to withstand a 200-year storm, will be used to house the LNG vaporization and surface storage facilities. Pending approvals, facilities could be operational by late 2007, McMoRan said.