Pangea Sets Sights on Floating LNG Export Facility off Corpus Christi

The US Office of Fossil Energy is currently reviewing a request submitted by Texas-based firm Pangea LNG for authorization to export 398.5 billion cubic feet per year of domestically produced liquefied natural gas over a 25-year period.

Pangea LNG hopes to export LNG from its proposed South Texas LNG Project at the Port of Corpus Christi.  The project is being developed through Pangea LNG North America Holding, LLC in conjunction with Statoil North America as a joint development partner and potential buyer of LNG output.

The South Texas LNG Project is being designed in two phases, each capable of producing 4 million tons per year and storing approximately 250,000 cubic meters of LNG.  Design options are being evaluated and the outcome is expected to consist of both land-based and floating liquefaction components.

For a visual of what a potential floating LNG liquefaction, storage, and offload facility would look like, see the following video:

The project site includes 550 acres on the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay adjacent to the 45-foot deep La Quinta Ship Channel.  It has 2,400 feet of ship channel frontage and is surrounded by an existing industrial development.

“Filing our FTA and non-FTA applications with DOE are major initial milestones for this project,” said John Godbold, Pangea project director.   “Our design optimization is ongoing and that work will be sufficiently complete so that we can begin the FERC prefiling review process in the Spring of 2013.”

Authorization will be requested from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and be subject to a full public environmental review process.  A FERC application will be filed in 2013 and the export terminal could be in commercial operation by 2017. The project will also have an associated pipeline to connect the LNG liquefaction facility to the extensive natural gas pipeline network in South Texas.

Pangaea sets sights on floating LNG

Pangea’s Chief Executive is Ms. Kathleen Eisbrenner, an experienced LNG professional who has held previous roles as Executive Vice President for Global LNG at Royal Dutch Shell and as CEO and Founder of Excelerate Energy.  In a recent press release, she noted:

Floating LNG is reaching it’s potential!  Floating regasification has demonstrated reduced costs for floating solutions. Innovative technologies and progressive projects will continue to inspire these successes in both upstream as well as downstream FLNG facilities.

Pangea LNG B.V. is positioned to fast-track development for projects in the Eastern Mediterranean, the United States, Africa, and elsewhere around the globe. We will integrate the natural gas value chain by bringing upstream and downstream assets together in flexible and creative ways.

Pangea LNG B.V. is a holding company with two major LNG export projects in the works – the South Texas LNG Export Project on the Texas Gulf Coast and the Tamar Project in the Eastern Mediterranean.  Pangea LNG is a developer of floating and land-based liquefaction projects which are designed to accelerate and support the monetization of gas reserves, particularly those that are stranded or have limited market access.

Pangea’s subsidiary Levant LNG Marketing and Tamar Partners have executed a Cost Sharing Agreement to jointly participate in the cost of developing the front end engineering and design (FEED) for the Tamar Project.  It will be a self-contained floating liquefaction and storage facility permanently moored 60 miles offshore in Israeli waters.  The Tamar liquefaction vessel will produce LNG for export from the Tamar and Dalit fields where major natural gas reserves have been proven in recent years.