- Nopetro LNG has bolstered its defense of its small-scale LNG facility planned in Florida, touting the lower emissions it says the project would offer.
- It asserts the project is designed for function rather than to evade Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction as some challengers have contended.
- Nopetro June 8 outlined positive impacts of the facility, to be located in Port St. Joe in the Florida Panhandle.
A recent news article published in the Platts by Maya Wevberstates that Nopetro pushes back on LNG project jurisdiction, touts emissions benefits.
Where is the facility located?
The facility would be located 1,329 feet away from a dock in Port St. Joe and would receive natural gas from two laterals operated by local distribution utility St. Joe Natural Gas.
A third-party truck operator would transport the LNG in International Organization for Standardization containers from the facility to an area subleased from Nopetro, where the containers would move to a third-party stevedore at the dock.
Nopetro, in its April 20 petition to FERC, said the case presented an opportunity for FERC to confirm that because the LNG will be exported only through ISO containers at the dock, the project is outside the commission’s jurisdiction(CP21-179).
Company petitioned FERC
The company petitioned FERC to declare the regulator lacks jurisdiction over the facility planned in Port St. Joe that would produce LNG for transport by truck and later shipment by sea to Central and South America and the Caribbean.
The request for FERC to define the limits of its reach follows the commission’s March order asserting jurisdiction of New Fortress Energy’s LNG terminal, already in operation in the Port of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In that case, FERC found that the New Fortress facility was an LNG terminal subject to commission jurisdiction because it included facilities dedicated to the importation of LNG in foreign commerce, was located at or near the point of import, and included a pipeline that sends out gas (CP20-466).
Response to Nopetro’s petition
In response to Nopetro’s petition, Public Citizen and Delaware Riverkeeper Network warned FERC against creating a major new loophole in its oversight of export terminals.
Delaware Riverkeeper alleged the proposed Nopetro project is the latest in trend of entities “purposely designing natural gas facilities to take advantage of technicalities in past commission rulings that allow these facilities to escape the public interest review required by the Natural Gas Act.”
DOE small-scale rule
In response, Nopetro said it was developing the project to be consistent with DOE’s small-scale LNG rule and to export ISO containers to emerging foreign markets not targeted by larger LNG projects due to practical and economic constraints.
As such, Nopetro’s Project will support DOE’s stated objective of expediting small-scale LNG exports, while “providing significant benefits to [the United States’] trading partners in the Caribbean Central America and South America,” Nopetro wrote.
“The commission should not impede Nopetro’s efforts by asserting jurisdiction over the project,” it added.
DOE delegation order
Countering Delaware Riverkeeper, also Nopetro argued that a DOE delegation order does not govern whether FERC should assert jurisdiction over a project that does not receive gas from a FERC-jurisdictional pipeline, does not export LNG via pipeline, and is not otherwise connected to a pipeline.
Further, Nopetro restated its view that it is not developing facilities at the point of export.
“The commission should not assert jurisdiction over the trucking of LNG in ISO containers, as doing so would introduce needless uncertainty and unreasonably broaden the commission’s jurisdiction into an area regulated by another federal agency,” Nopetro said.
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Source: Platts
