A U.S. firm that recently reported that it is moving full steam ahead with plans to construct a $500 million natural gas pipeline between the Bahamas and Port Everglades, Florida is unlikely to get government approval anytime soon, if ever, a top government official said Tuesday.
Florida media reports said this week that Tractebel Electricity and Gas hopes to complete the environmental and safety approvals this year and start construction on the pipeline next year.
Tractebel is the American arm of a Belgium company that purchased the project from the beleaguered Enron Corp.
But the Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller said that Tractebel is the least likely of the other companies seeking approval for such projects to get it.
In fact, Minister Miller said that he has not even seen a proposal from the company to carry natural gas between the Bahamas and Florida.
He said he was surprised to see U.S. media reports suggesting that the project was good to go.
Minister Miller said the principals of Tractebel appear to be acting under the assumption that they need only get approval from the Grand Bahama Port Authority for the construction of the natural gas pipeline.
There are two other companies that want to originate liquefied natural gas pipelines from the Bahamas to serve Florida's increasing natural gas needs. One is the El Paso Corporation, which claims to be the leading provider of natural gas services and the largest pipeline company in North America. The company proposes to transport natural gas from Grand Bahama to West Palm Beach, Florida and has said that its operation should be in place by the summer of 2005.
Another company that is jockeying for the governmental green light is AES Corp., which says it is the leading global power company. AES plans to build a plant on Ocean Cay, south of Bimini, that would convert liquefied natural gas to gaseous form.
Minister Miller said in an earlier interview with the Bahama Journal that the firms that have submitted proposals are deep-pocketed and he said the El Paso project would provide more than 400 jobs for Bahamians. The company expects to invest some $2 billion in the project by the final phase, Minister Miller said.
Minister Miller said whatever the government decides concerning these projects would undoubtedly be in the best interest of Bahamians.
He could not say when it is likely that the government would grant approval for any of the liquefied natural gas projects, but he did say a few months ago that he expected that the government would have granted AES approval before the end of 2002. But that apparently has not happened.
Whatever the government decides, it is sure to face opposition from local environmentalists who insist that any LNG project would be detrimental to the environment.
Sam Duncombe, spokesperson for ReEarth, believes that the companies are proposing the projects for the Bahamas because environmental laws here are "loose."
"The process is shrouded in secrecy," Mrs. Duncombe told the Bahama Journal, speaking of the proposals before the government.
The popularity of natural gas continues to increase because of stricter clean air standards in the United States, which means that more and more companies are willing to invest millions of dollars – even billions of dollars – in natural gas projects.
By Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
