BROWNSVILLE — The United States Coast Guard found the Brownsville Ship Channel to be suitable for marine traffic resulting from Texas LNG’s planned liquefaction terminal at the Port of Brownsville.

In a letter of recommendation issued Feb. 26 to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Coast Guard concluded that the waterway is suitable to handle current and anticipated incremental traffic from the Texas LNG proposed facility.

The Houston-based company plans to construct an LNG export facility on a 625-acre site at the Port of Brownsville. The facility will enable the export of 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG to established and developing markets. The proposed terminal is being designed to accommodate LNG carriers with nominal LNG capacities up to 180,000 m3 and dimensions on the order of 977 feet long and 151 feet wide.

“After reviewing the information in the applicant’s Letter of Intent and Waterway Suitability Assessment and completing an evaluation of the waterway in consultation with a variety of state and local port stakeholders, I recommend that the Brownsville Ship Channel be considered suitable for accommodating the type and frequency of LNG marine traffic associated with this project,” said U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port, Captain R.A. Hahn, in his letter to FERC.

The Coast Guard considered not only Texas LNG’s expected LNG carrier traffic, but also recognized other traffic transiting through the Brownsville Ship Channel including offshore rigs, aircraft carriers, fishing vessels, recreational vessels, towing vessels, non-piloted barges, as well as potential traffic from other proposed LNG projects.

Full FERC approval and Final Investment Decision (FID) for the development of the Texas LNG liquefaction project proposed in Brownsville are expected in 2019, and first phase production of 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG is expected to begin in 2023.

Texas LNG has secured long-term offtake term sheets from LNG buyers in China, Southeast Asia and Europe, and is planning to begin pre-FID Detailed Engineering in 2018 upon closing of its current funding round.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Letter of Recommendation can be downloaded through the following link: http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20180226-5125 or from the Texas LNG website: http://www.txlng.com/theproject/regulatory-updates.html