A liquified natural gas supplier wants to build a port along the Delaware River that would be used to transport shipments of Liquified Natural Gas.
The plans from New Fortress Energy were included in a securities filing for limited partnership interests.
The site of the facility was not specified, although New Jersey has large industrial areas along the river.
Delaware’s coastline is covered under the Coastal Zone Act, which essentially bars large new facilities. Recent changes to the law would allow limited development at more than a dozen former industrial sites.
Delaware earlier battled New Jersey in a dispute over whether the First State had veto power over an LNG port in the Garden State.
The environmental community also cited the risks of giant LNG tankers on the river, citing potential danger if the vessels passed under the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The Sierra Club opposes natural gas as a climate solution.
Plans for the terminal were shelved by BP in 2008. The energy giant cited a poor market conditions at the time.
However, the discovery of massive natural gas reserves in western Pennsylvania has triggered increased LNG activity in the region. Dominion Energy is now operating a large LNG shipping port on the Chesapeake Bay.
New Fortress describes itself in the filing as an “integrated gas-to-power company that seeks to use ‘stranded’ natural gas to satisfy the world’s large and growing power needs. Our mission is to provide modern infrastructure solutions to create cleaner, reliable energy while generating a positive economic impact worldwide.”
In the filing, the company says it is developing two liquefiers in the Marcellus gas area of Pennsylvania, with plans to develop more liquefiers in coming years.
The company would use tanker trucks to transport LNG from Pennsylvania liquefiers to a port on the Delaware River or the Gulf of Mexico for gas supplies in the central U.S. The gas would then be loaded into large sea-going vessels.
The company’s goal isto build 10 to 20 downstream terminals over the next five years. New Fortress currently has operations under construction or in operation in Jamaica, Mexico and near Miami, FL
The filing cautions that costs of the projects are high, with the industry having a limited number of customers.
New Fortress says LNG is cleaner than fuel oil and other fuels that are used in areas such as Jamaica. New Fortress has announced plans to spend $1 billion on LNG projects in Jamaica.
The company was co-founded by private equity investor Wesley Edens, the co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Edens was also instrumental in the formation of the first private passenger commuter rail carrier in Florida, according to the New Fortress website.
