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BP considers gas terminal in Tampa
By STEVE HUETTEL © St. Petersburg Times, published May 8, 2001
An affiliate of BP has options to lease 60 acres at the tip of Hooker's Point for a terminal where ships three times the length of a football field would unload natural gas cooled into a liquid at minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit. The project would include super-cooled storage tanks, a plant to heat the liquid fuel back into gas and a pipeline connecting to commercial customers, especially electric utilities that use gas-fired generators, the company says. Port director George Williamson says BP officials told him that the terminal would cost about $200-million and take at least four years to win approval from federal, state and local regulators. The company is considering several locations in North America, although Tampa is the only one disclosed so far, said BP spokesman Daren Beaudo in Houston. BP's study hasn't gone far enough to discuss construction cost estimates or other details, he said. BP paid the Tampa Port Authority $20,000 for a six-month option on the site and can extend the option another six months for $50,000 more. There are only two active liquefied natural gas terminals in the United States, although energy companies are working to get two others mothballed in 1980 back into service. Four big energy companies, including BP, plan to build as many as seven new terminals in the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean, according to an April report by Salomon Smith Barney. That includes two terminals in the Bahamas designed to serve Florida. Enron wants to run a pipeline 90 miles that will come ashore in Broward County. El Paso Energy won't say how it would transport the gas to Florida. Forecasters at the state Public Service Commission estimate demand for natural gas will grow an average of 5 percent a year over the next decade. Energy companies and analysts say the growth could be twice that much. Driving demand is a bevy of new gas-fired power plants and conversions of old plants to run on the clean-burning fuel, said Michael Schmitz, an analyst with Salomon Smith Barney. Liquefied gas from Trinidad, Venezuela and elsewhere will be needed to augment gas piped from domestic fields, he said. "Many, many of these new power plants are natural gas-fired, and it's tough to see where the big uptick is going to come in U.S. production," Schmitz said. "The supply for Florida is as tight or tighter than the rest of the country." While liquefied natural gas makes up only 1 percent of the U.S. gas supply, it is widely used in Japan and Korea. BP and other companies say they've got an outstanding safety record in shipping and handling the material. Liquefied natural gas isn't combustible until it vaporizes and reaches a certain mixture with oxygen. The liquid isn't stored under pressure, so it doesn't leak quickly, BP spokesman Neil Chapman said. "It oozes," he said. Still, plans by Williams Gas Pipeline to reactivate its Cove Point terminal in Lusby, Md., has neighbors jittery. Schmitz thinks Enron and El Paso are building in the Bahamas to avoid tougher scrutiny from federal regulators and local opposition in South Florida. Spokesmen for the companies say various factors went into their decisions. Forecasters at the state Public Service Commission estimate demand for natural gas will grow an average of 5 percent a year over the next decade. The prospect of a terminal in Tampa doesn't alarm Peter Clark, executive director of Tampa BayWatch, an environmental group. He notes that ships in Tampa Bay hold a variety of hazardous cargos. Vessels must maintain a 1,000-yard "clear zone" from barges carrying anhydrous ammonia and propane. They aren't allowed to pass them in shipping channels. "It's a matter of being able to transport it in a safe manner," Clark said. - Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Steve Huettel can be reached at (813) 226-3384.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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TAMPA -- Energy giant BP is looking into shipping natural gas into the Port of Tampa, the latest plan in a race among global companies to supply more gas to the booming Florida market.
