AES Sparrows Point LNG Facility, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

AES Sparrows Point LNG, LLC, which is owned by AES Corporation (headquarters in Arlington, Virginia), has put forward a project to construct and operate a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regasification facility at the Sparrows Point Industrial Complex near Baltimore in Maryland. The project design incorporates a marine receiving terminal with fully articulated unloading arms and cryogenic transfer piping, three full containment 160,000m³ storage tanks, a gas conditioning and send-out system, plus administrative and support buildings, and berthing facilities to support cargo offloading.

The integrated project also includes a closed-loop glycol vaporisation system to convert the LNG back into gas prior to its delivery into the existing national grid pipeline system. The total vaporisation capacity of the facility has been designed at 1.5 billion cubic feet a day, with additional provisions for future expansion up to 2.25 billion cubic feet if required.

CONNECTION

The new LNG facility will connect with various interstate gas pipelines at a point near Eagle, Pennsylvania via the Mid-Atlantic Express, LLC pipeline. The new Mid-Atlantic pipeline will be about 88 miles in length and will be routed along existing utility corridors to minimise disruption and allow construction to be easier.

The new 28in-diameter interstate natural gas pipeline has been designed to serve the increasing need for natural gas in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Regions of the US, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, the northern parts of Virginia and the southern parts of New York.

PROJECT

The LNG project is now under development. About 100 permits and approvals are required from federal, state and local agencies before the construction can start.

This could be as early as mid-2008 with a commercial operation date in late 2010. AES will source LNG from reputable international resources and will transport the LNG in specially designed vessels to supply the Mid-Atlantic region.

CONSTRUCTION

The project is expected to be located on an abandoned section of the Sparrows Point Shipyard owned by Willis-Barletta Corp and previously by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The 80-acre project site is a parcel of land located between the existing graving dock (southern boundary) and Pier 3 (northern boundary).

The water’s edge is on the western boundary and the eastern boundary extends just beyond the existing fabrication building, up to and including Piers 1 and 2. The project site was previously used for shipbuilding and manufacturing steel.

To support berthing operations at the facility, the existing marine channel needs to be widened and deepened to about 44ft deep and 400ft wide. A turning basin will also be dredged to allow the ship to be turned under tug support and be berthed at the marine terminal in a bow-out direction.

The marine terminal is designed to berth and unload LNG tankers ranging in size from 127,500 to 217,000 m³. The maximum length of the ships will be about 1,000ft. The marine terminal will be able to accommodate two vessels simultaneously but the unloading and transfer equipment will be designed to restrict unloading to one vessel at a time. The schedule will accommodate two or three ships a week when the project is fully operational.

UNLOADING

Upon berthing the LNG transporters will transfer their liquid product via three fully articulated 16in-diameter stainless-steel unloading arms sharing a 32in stainless-steel unloading header, which transfers the LNG to the storage tanks. Boil-off gas is transferred back to the ship using vapour-return blowers that create suction in the tank vapour space and transfer the product through a fully articulated 16in-diameter vapour-return arm.