Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (ASX:LNG, OTC ADR:LNGLY) has been advised that the U.S. Federal Environmental Regulatory Commission (FERC) is currently preparing the draft environmental impact statements for the Magnolia LNG project in Louisiana.
Once completed, this will be subject to a 45-day comment period before a final EIS is completed.
Findings in the final EIS will be used by FERC to decide on whether or not to approve the project.
Magnolia LNG, located along the Calcasieu River near Lake Charles, is planned as a 8 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) liquefied natural gas export project comprising of four liquefaction trains, each capable of producing up to 2Mtpa of LNG (1.7Mtpa firm).
Environmental Review Process
The FERC is the lead federal agency responsible for conducting the environmental review for Magnolia LNG.
Other agencies involved include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Department of Transportation.
FERC started its review of the project on 20th March 2013 when it approved Magnolia’s request to use the FERC pre-filing process.
The pre-filing process ended when Magnolia formally filed its application with the FERC on April 30, 2014.
Presently, FERC is conducting its environmental analysis of the proposed project, the results of which will be presented in the draft EIS.
The draft EIS will describe the potential environmental impacts of the projects, mitigation measures proposed for each project, alternatives considered, and will include an engineering design review of the proposed facilities.
It will also present FERC’s recommendations for additional mitigation and/or conservation measures to avoid or further reduce impacts on the affected environment.
In addition to the companies’ applications and project data, FERC will analyse information that has been filed by other stakeholders and commenters in the proceeding.
All substantive issues identified by commenters will be addressed in the draft EIS.
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