FERC vacated a 2007 authorization that would have allowed Cameron LNG LLC to build a fourth storage tank and other facilities at its LNG import terminal near Hackberry, La., because the company has not started construction.

FERC had granted the Natural Gas Act Section 3 authorization to build the storage tank among other authorizations in a January 2007 order allowing Cameron, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, to expand the import terminal to increase its storage capacity and its natural gas send-out rate from 1.5 Bcf/d to 2.65 Bcf/d. The expansion order required Cameron to put the facilities in service within four years. In December 2010, after a request by Cameron, the commission granted the company a one-year extension until Jan. 18, 2012, to build the facilities and put them in service.

"Cameron has not begun construction of the authorized facilities," FERC said in a July 6 order. "Since the extended deadline for the in-service date expired six months ago, the commission will vacate Cameron's authorization to construct the unbuilt LNG terminal expansion facilities."

FERC noted that Cameron had implemented some of the authorizations granted in the 2007 expansion order that did not involve construction, such as the authorization to increase the gas send-out rate to 1.8 Bcf/d and the authorization to simultaneously unload LNG from two berths, and the commission emphasized that it was only vacating authorization "to construct the still unbuilt expansion facilities, and not the operational authorizations." (CP06-422)

The commission also noted that Cameron included construction of a fourth storage tank as part of its proposed Cameron LNG LLC, now in the commission's prefiling process (PF12-13). The commission said that if the company files an application for that project, the commission will make a decision on the additional storage tank based on the record in that proceeding.

Copyright 2012 SNL Financial LC. All Rights Reserved.

(Originally published July 18, 2012, in SNL Daily Gas Report.)