Ribbon cut on $1.1B liquefied natural gas facility

PASCAGOULA — GE Energy Financial Services’ co-owned Gulf LNG regasification and liquefied natural gas storage facility on the Gulf of Mexico has successfully begun operations.

GE made the announcement at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the facility in Pascagoula joined by Gov. Haley Barbour and executives of El Paso Corporation.

“After three-and-a-half years of construction, this $1.1-billion facility was completed on-time and on-budget and forms an important part of our nation’s energy infrastructure,” said Dan Castagnola, a managing director of GE Energy Financial Services in Houston, Texas.

The terminal, operated by a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation, is located adjacent to the Bayou Casotte Ship Channel in the Port of Pascagoula on the Gulf Coast. It receives, stores and regasifies — turns back into gas — imported liquefied natural gas, known as LNG. The terminal consists of two 160,000 cubic meter storage tanks with a combined capacity of 6.6 billion cubic feet (Bcf); 10 vaporizers, providing a base send-out capacity of 1.3 Bcf/d; and five miles of 36-inch pipeline connecting to downstream pipelines owned by Gulfstream, Destin, Transco, and Florida Gas Transmission. The pipelines provide access to the Pascagoula Gas Processing Plant operated by BP America Production Company.

The Gulf LNG facility is contracted under 20-year firm service agreements for all of its capacity with a group of LNG producers, including several major oil and gas companies, to support the facility and provide a source of LNG.

GE Energy Financial Services has experience in many midstream sectors and unconventional gas. Its $2.4 billion midstream equity and debt investment portfolio consists of stakes in a midstream master limited partnership, gas storage assets, 40,000 miles of gas pipelines and its stake in the Gulf LNG regasification terminal. GE Energy Financial Services, directly and indirectly, controls its 50 percent stake in Gulf LNG while El Paso controls the other 50 percent, and through a subsidiary, is the operator.