Exxon Mobil to seek LNG facility off Jersey coast
COA opposes offshore gas terminal
BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer

SEA BRIGHT - After Exxon Mobil Corp. announced plans to seek regulatory approval for a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal off the coast of New Jersey Dec. 11, state officials and local activists are speaking out against the plan.

In a Dec. 12 letter, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6) urges U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen and U.S. Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton to deny Exxon Mobil's BlueOcean Energy proposal under the Deepwater Port Act.

"I have long opposed the building of LNG facilities off the Jersey coast," Pallone wrote in the letter. "We should not be using our pristine coastal resources as industrial facilities. The building, staging and maintenance of an offshore LNG terminal would be a tremendous environmental burden and an accident waiting to happen."

According to Shannon Russell, director of congressional and public affairs for the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), Exxon Mobil Corp. will not be submitting an application to MARAD until 2009.

Exxon Mobil's plan to seek regulatory approval came on the heels of a similar proposal regarding a deepwater LNG port 19 miles off the Jersey Shore coastline.

The Atlantic Sea Island Group (ASIG), a New York City-based investment group, previously submitted an application to build and operate Safe Harbor Energy, a 62.5-acre man made island to store LNG in the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of New York and New Jersey.

"Here's another bad actor that wants to bring fossil fuels, pollution and industrial development to our cleaner, healthier ocean," said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action (COA), an ocean advocacy group. "This company's track record is not one we would welcome to the Jersey Shore to manage hazardous material off our coast."

COA opposes the ASIG proposal and now has taken a similar stance regarding the Exxon Mobil plans.

"Our major concern is that New Jersey and New York have done a great job at trying to end the dump sites and ending the hazardous uses of our oceans … we didn't do all that so it could be fresh dumping grounds for new projects of big oil. We're really concerned about this spreading of industrial sprawl out into the ocean," said COA water policy attorney David Byer.

He added, "This is public land and we're not very comfortable allowing the government to lease out land to these bad actors. It's public land and we don't want to trust it to someone who won't be held accountable."

According to an Exxon Mobil Dec. 11 press release, the terminal, or deepwater port, will be anchored about 20 miles off the Jersey coastline and will have the capacity to supply about 1.2 billion cubic feet of LNG to residential consumers in New Jersey and New York.

"Currently, there are no other floating LNG terminals operating with BlueOcean Energy's design. Safe Harbor is an entirely different concept. It features a permanent artificial island, whereas BlueOcean Energy features a floating LNG terminal much further off shore and away from shipping lanes and fishing areas," said Exxon Mobil media relations advisor Kimberly Johnson Brasington in a Dec. 17 e-mail.

"We believe that BlueOcean Energy is a unique and innovative solution to meeting the region's energy needs," said Ron P. Billings, vice president of Global LNG, Exxon Mobil Gas & Power Marketing Co. "BlueOcean Energy will provide significant economic benefits to New Jersey and New York and will help the region achieve its environmental objectives."

The floating terminal would be designed to receive LNG supplies from double hulled LNG ships about twice a week and store the LNG in insulated tanks inside the terminal's double hull, according to the press release. The stored LNG would then be warmed to turn it back into natural gas for delivery to New Jersey and New York markets through a new subsea pipeline that would connect to new and existing onshore pipelines, according to the release.

"The location of all the facilities is driven by market conditions and obviously they want to have it in international waters and far away from the shipping lanes so they locate them so it's convenient to pipeline infrastructure," said Russell. She added the proposal off the Jersey coastline is similar to proposals off the coast of Boston.

According to Brasington, there are some advantages to the proposed location.

She said these include access to northeast and mid-Atlantic markets; a sufficiently large, commercially available vacant site; environmental impact; deepwater access (i.e. ocean, bay, estuary or river); safety of people and facilities; proximity to existing pipelines; ability to connect to these pipelines with minimal impact to public and infrastructure; potential public impact and cost.

According to Byer, offshore LNG proposals are governed by the Deepwater Port Act, which includes a 240-day public review process, whereas on-land proposals do not have as strict a time frame for public review.

"By going offshore there is a benefit by being able to push this through the public process quicker," said Byer.

He added, "They are starting to propose the LNG facilities offshore, as an industry, to avoid public scrutiny. It's kind of out of sight out of mind."

The Exxon Mobil press release states that the terminal would not be visible from the coastline and would be anchored in about 150 feet of water, outside shipping lanes and away from port traffic.

"Public consultation is a cornerstone of the permitting process, and we are committed to discussing the project with communities and other stakeholders," Billings said in the release. "We look forward to working closely with state and federal officials, as well as with the MARAD and the U.S. Coast Guard, the agencies responsible for the review of the terminal plans under the Deepwater Port Act."

Exxon Mobil Corp. is also involved in three similar terminal projects: one near Sabine Pass, Tex.; one in Wales in the United Kingdom; and a third in the Adriatic Sea off the shore of Italy, according to the release.