Elba Island

Elba Island is an island located in Chatham County, Georgia, near the Port of Savannah.

LNG (liquefied natural gas) is used to transport natural gas in a highly compressed form. It is commonly used to allow shipments by ocean vessels. LNG is maintained at -260F or colder and is 600 times as dense as air temperature natural gas.

Elba Island is an existing LNG import terminal located on Elba Island, in Chatham County, Georgia, five miles downstream from Savannah, Georgia. It was built by Sonat, Inc., based in Birmingham, Alabama, for its Southern Natural Gas division. The initial authorization for the Elba Island facility was issued in 1972. LNG shipments ceased during the first half of 1980. On March 16, 2000, the project received Commission authorization to re-commission and renovate the LNG facilities.

On June 2, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave approval for the Elba Liquefaction Project. The approximate $2 billion project will be constructed and operated at the existing Elba Island LNG Terminal near Savannah, Georgia. The first of 10 liquefaction units is expected to be placed in service in the second quarter of 2018, with the remaining nine units coming online before the end of 2018. This project is supported by a 20-year contract with Shell.

In 2012, the Elba Liquefaction Project received authorization from the Department of Energy to export to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries. An application to export to non-FTA countries is pending, but is not required for the project to move ahead. The liquefaction project is expected to have a total capacity of approximately 2.5 million tonnes per year of LNG for export, equivalent to approximately 350,000 Mcf per day of natural gas.

LNG tanker ships typically range from 1.5 to 3.7 BCF (billion cubic feet) equivalent capacity, thus the Elba LNG terminal should be able to export approximately one tanker per week, depending on the capacity of the tanker. Larger tankers would take approximately 2 weeks of LNG production to fill.

Kinder Morgan is expanding Elba with newly designed modular units produced by Shell, which has subscribed to 100 percent of the facility's export capacity of 2.5 million tons per year for 20 years. Kinder Morgan purchased Shell's 49 percent equity interest in the project summer 2015.

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