A liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline between Ocean Cay, Bimini, and Dania Beach, Florida could become a reality in three years.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Leslie Miller, said Sunday that AES Corp, an Arlington, Virginia-based global power company, which also owns an aragonite mining plant at Ocean Cay, is expected to receive government approval to construct the 90-mile, $600 million-dollar natural gas pipeline.
Aragonite, a mineral form of calcium carbonate, first found during the 19th century in Aragon, Spain, is used in the building and glass industries.
Of the LNG approval, Mr Miller said, “They have one more approval to go now, and then they will be ready to go.”
During last week’s sitting of the House of Assembly, Mr Miller, responding to a question from Opposition Minority Whip Brent Symonette, said that, since the year 2000, the government had received four applications for the development of LNG facilities in The Bahamas.
He listed the companies as: AES Corp, El Paso Corp, Tractabel Electricity and Gaz de France. However, Gaz de France’s application was refused outright by the National Economic Council during the Free National Movement administration, he said.
Presently, crude oil is shipped from foreign ports to a transshipment and bunkering facility on Grand Bahama and redistributed to ports on the U.S. east coast.
The pipeline is not expected to prove a hazard to the seabed or underwater marine life, Mr Miller said.
“In fact,” he continued, “the United States Government is promoting the implementation of this gas pipeline heavily, and there are no environmental concerns as far as any potential damage is concerned.”
According to the Miami Herald, AES still needs to get state and federal environmental approvals for the project, in addition to the go- ahead from the Bahamian government.
AES, achieved a significant victory last week Wednesday, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission made a “preliminary determination” that there was an economic need for the pipeline.
AES filed its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FREC) application in February, 2000 after a year of engineering and survey studies. By the end of this year, the company expects to receive final approval, and start pumping gas by 2006.
Tractebel Electricity and Gas also wants to complete a $500 million-dollar calypso pipeline project initially planned by the Enron company, to carry natural gas between The Bahamas and Port Everglades.
The company took over some of the operations of the now bankrupt Enron for $11 million dollars. Tractebel, according to the Miami Herald, was confident that it could do the job, with more than 20 years experience dealing with liquefied natural gas facilities, in addition to owning LNG ships. The company said that it hopes to begin construction of its pipeline in 2004 if granted government approval.
On the other hand, El Paso Corp envisions getting natural gas from various sites overseas, freezing it down to minus-250 degrees Fahrenheit, while transporting it in enormous tankers to The Bahamas. Plants would then re-heat the gas for transmission through pipelines.
The interested companies want to build pipelines from the Bahamas because of envisaged difficulties in getting a re-gasification facility approved in the United States, an expensive, and time-consuming process, that could lead to nowhere.
By Tamara McKenzie, The Nassau Guardian
