Crystal Energy LNG terminal lags behind other applicants

The Woodside/Crystal Energy/Veneco proposal to re-use the offshore oil Platform Grace near Santa Barbara is coming under scrutiny, even as other proposals appear more likely to succeed, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press:

Platform Grace, an oil platform 15 miles south of Carpinteria, is central to a recently signed agreement that could bring enough natural gas to meet more than a quarter of California's surging residential demand.

Crystal Energy of Oxnard and Woodside (USA) Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Australia's largest publicly traded independent oil and gas company, have inked a strategic alliance to develop Crystal's proposed Clearwater Port project.

Under the agreement, Woodside will provide technical and operational expertise plus funding for the $300 million facility, which would bring natural gas to Santa Barbara County and the rest of California...

Platform Grace was installed in 1979 and stands in 319 feet of water. In 1999, Chevron sold the platform, which no longer produces oil, to Carpinteria-based Venoco Inc. Crystal Energy now has a long-term lease with the option to purchase.

The project involves converting the platform to a liquefied natural gas, or LNG, import facility. Natural gas, primarily from Australia, cooled to minus 259 degrees and thus greatly reduced in volume, would be shipped in liquid form to the platform.

There, the liquid would be turned back into vapor and sent through a 12-mile sea-floor pipeline to an existing industrial facility in Oxnard before being fed into the Southern California Gas Co. network...

Cy Oggins, staff environmental scientist with the California State Lands Commission in Sacramento, said the most advanced application is that of BHP Billiton, which hopes to be pumping gas by 2008.

Mr. Oggins said the Australian resources company wants to moor a floating LNG storage and re-gasification facility 14 miles off the coast, about level with the border of Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

The application was lodged in September 2003, and an environmental review was conducted in February. Mr. Oggins said the environmental impact report was released a week ago and is open for comment until Dec. 20, after which hearings will be held.

Billiton is followed by Sound Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, which wants to build an onshore facility at the Port of Long Beach.