The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved service for Dominion Resources Inc.'s (D) Cove Point liquefied natural gas expansion project, and the new capacity should be online by the end of the year, a company spokesman said.

Although the project will expand capacity at the plant to 14.6 billion cubic feet from 7.8 billion and double processing abilities to 1.8 billion cubic feet a day, the company doesn't have a scheduled shipment to use the expanded capacity, spokesman Dan Donovan said.

"As you know, it's been a thin year" for LNG imports, said Donovan. Natural gas prices have plummeted to under $6 a million British thermal units from a high near $14 per million BTUs in July.

StatoilHydro ASA (STO), BP PLC (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA, RDSB) each own capacity at the terminal.

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