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Energy Boost

In southern Louisiana, Bechtel is building a major facility for converting LNG back into natural gas.

By Janet Kreiling
All photos by Mark Green/Getty Assignment

Natural gas is vital to the United States. It heats homes, fuels industry, and generates electricity. The problem is that the country needs more natural gas than it can produce—and most of the world’s supply is far from U.S. shores. One solution is liquefied natural gas (LNG), a highly compressed, liquid form of natural gas that can be shipped from distant sources and converted into usable natural gas at its destination.

Currently, there are just four onshore LNG receiving terminal/regasification facilities in the United States—all built more than 25 years ago. But things are about to change, thanks to companies like Cheniere Energy, Inc.

Houston-based Cheniere has plans to build several major LNG terminals in the United States. One of the first ones—the Sabine Pass project now under construction in Louisiana—will be among the world’s largest, capable of regasifying 4 billion cubic feet (113 million cubic meters) per day of natural gas.

To design and build Sabine Pass, Cheniere turned to Bechtel, the company that has led the burgeoning LNG market. Over the past several years, Bechtel has built some of the world’s largest LNG production facilities in Australia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, and Trinidad.

Sabine Pass LNG is Bechtel’s first regasification project in more than a quarter of a century, but the expertise gained on other projects has ensured that this one will be a success. “We are meeting our goals for a successful project with safe execution,” says Cheniere Energy President and Chief Operating Officer Stan Horton.

Sabine Pass is being built in two phases. Phase 1 is scheduled to begin operations in the second quarter of 2008, processing up to 2.6 billion cubic feet (74 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day. Phase 2, expected to be operational a year later, will expand the per-day capacity by an additional 1.4 billion cubic feet (40 million cubic meters). Phase 1 features 16 regasification units arranged in two banks of eight; three storage tanks, each capable of holding 5.7 million cubic feet (160,000 cubic meters) of LNG, and a marine terminal with two berths designed for off-loading large next-generation tankers carrying up to 9.4 million cubic feet (266,000 cubic meters) of LNG. Phase 2 will include eight regasification units and two additional LNG storage tanks. A third LNG storage tank has been permitted for a total of six on the site.

The first phase of the project will begin operations while the second is still under construction—a strategy that requires a great deal of planning and scheduling. Ultimately, the two phases will operate as a unified plant, sharing utilities, a communications network, and some infrastructure.

Typically, LNG is heated from cryogenic temperatures of about minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 162 degrees Celsius) using submerged combustion vaporizers fueled by natural gas produced in the process. In Phase 2 of the project, Cheniere is pioneering the use of ambient air vaporizers, which do not require fuel as a source of heat. Rather, the LNG is fed into a bundle of tall, finned pipes—essentially heat exchangers—and warmed by the ambient air, which is drawn by convection to the cold pipes. This technique, which has been proven in smaller-scale applications, promises considerable savings in fuel costs.

At Sabine Pass, Bechtel has faced major challenges involving soil conditions, procurement, and a shortage of skilled craft workers.

The soil along the Sabine River is swampy, (“basically like toothpaste,” says Jose Montalvo, Bechtel project manager for Phase 2). The soil had to be stabilized with heavy infusions of ash, lime, and other supplements just to support the weight of construction equipment. Supporting the actual plant and tanks required sinking thousands of concrete piles to a depth of 90 feet (27 meters).

The project’s procurement team had to contend with a red-hot global economy that made it difficult to line up equipment. But Bechtel was able to leverage long-standing relationships with suppliers to obtain compressors, pumps, gas turbines, and other equipment the project needed. Using the same vendors and using strategies such as pre-buying equipment and supplies helped ease the procurement process for Phase 2, according to Ray Peters, Bechtel’s project procurement manager.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita made labor hard to get, given the massive effort to clean up and rebuild the region (the project is just a few miles from the Gulf Coast). The storms also destroyed a lot of local housing, so Cheniere helped develop living accommodations for craft workers coming from throughout Texas and Louisiana. “We are committed to sustainable development in the local community, particularly after the devastation caused by Hurricane Rita,” says Keith Little, president of Sabine Pass LNG-GP, Inc.

A key goal is to maintain continuity of the work force for both phases of the project. “We tried to schedule a smooth transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2,” says Bruce Sullivan, who is the Bechtel site manager for Phase 1, “so that as parts of Phase 1 wind down, we can transition workers to Phase 2.” As a result, the project anticipates that many of the 500 or so original craft workers also will work on Phase 2.

The use of cryogenic feedstock requires expertise, and Bechtel has provided project workers with specialized safety training to educate them on safe, accident-free practices.

As one of the first new LNG terminals being built in the United States in a quarter of a century, Sabine Pass LNG is a landmark for Cheniere and Bechtel, and a harbinger of good things to come for the U.S. energy market.