E7-16875. Atlantic Sea Island Group LLC, Safe Harbor Energy Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port License Application

AGENCY:

Maritime Administration, DOT.

ACTION:

Notice of application.

SUMMARY:

The Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration announce that they have received an application for the licensing of a natural gas deepwater port, and that the application appears to contain the required information. This notice summarizes the applicant's plans and the procedures that will be followed in considering the application.

DATES:

The Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended, requires any public hearing on this application to be held not later than 240 days after this notice, and requires a decision on the application to be made not later than 90 days after the final public hearing.

ADDRESSES:

The public docket for USCG-2007-28535 is maintained by the: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., West Building Ground Floor W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.

Docket contents are available for public inspection and copying, at this address, in room W12-140, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The Facility's telephone is 202-366-9329, its fax is 202-493-2251, and its website for electronic submissions or for electronic access to docket contents is http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mary K. Jager, U.S. Coast Guard, telephone: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail] or Andrew Tibbetts, U.S. Maritime Administration, telephone: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. If you have questions on viewing the docket, call Renee V. Wright, Program Manager, Docket Operations, telephone: [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Receipt of Application

On May 8, 2007, the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration received an application from Atlantic Sea Island Group LLC (ASIG), Chrysler Building, 405 Lexington Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10174; for all Federal authorizations required for a license to own, construct, and operate a deepwater port governed by the Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1501 et seq. (the Act). On August 15, 2007, we determined that the application appears to contain all information required by the Act.

Background

According to the Act, a deepwater port is a fixed or floating manmade structure other than a vessel, or a group of structures, located beyond State seaward boundaries and used or intended for use as a port or terminal for the transportation, storage, and further handling of oil or natural gas for transportation to any State.

A deepwater port must be licensed by the Maritime Administrator (by delegated authority of the Secretary of Transportation, published on June 18, 2003 (68 FR 36496)). Statutory and regulatory requirements for licensing appear in 33 U.S.C. 1501 et seq. and in 33 CFR part 148. Under delegations from and agreements between the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Homeland Security, applications are processed by the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration. Each application is considered on its merits.

The Act requires adherence to a strict timeline for processing an application. Once we determine that an application contains the required information, we must hold public hearings on the application within 240 days, and the Maritime Administrator must render a decision on the application within 330 days. We will publish additional Federal Register notices to inform you of these public hearings and other procedural milestones, including environmental review. The Maritime Administrator's decision, and other key documents, will be filed in the public docket.

At least one public hearing must take place in each adjacent coastal State. For purposes of the Act, New York is the adjacent coastal State for this application. Other States can apply for adjacent coastal State status in accordance with 33 U.S.C. 1508(a)(2).

Summary of the Application

Atlantic Sea Island Group LLC (ASIG), proposes to own, construct, and operate a deepwater port, named Safe Harbor Energy, in the Federal waters of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf in the area known as the New York Bight region in MMS lease area NK18-12 block 6655. The proposed location is approximately 13.5 miles south of the City of Long Beach on Long Island and 23 miles southeast of New York Harbor entrance, in an area between the Ambrose-to-Nantucket and Hudson Canyon-to-Ambrose shipping lanes, located at approximately 40°23′ N and 73°36′ E, in water depth of between 60 and 70 feet.

The deepwater port, Safe Harbor Energy, consists of three components: An island to be constructed of natural sand, gravel, and rock materials surrounded by armored breakwaters, consisting of prefabricated caissons, armor units, and rock; an LNG receiving, storage, and regasification facility; and a subsea pipeline that would transport the natural gas to an offshore connection with the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corporation's pipeline system. The pipeline would consist of two parallel 36-inch-diameter pipe segments extending 12.8 miles from the island. Safe Harbor Energy will include berthing and offloading space for two conventional LNG vessels with capacity of 70,000 m³ to 270,000 m³. Additionally, it would accommodate support vessels including docking/firefighting tugs and crew support launches. The storage portion would include four (4) 180,000 m³ full-containment storage tanks. The regasification equipment would be an ambient air heat exchange type. Safe Harbor Energy would have an average throughput capacity of approximately 1.15 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd).

A shore based facility will be used to facilitate movement of personnel, equipment, supplies, and disposable materials between the port and shore.

Construction of the deepwater port would be expected to take approximately five (5) years; with startup of commercial operations following construction, should a license be issued. The deepwater port would be designed, constructed, and operated in accordance with applicable codes and standards and would have an expected operating life of approximately 25 years.

Privacy Act

Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000, (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit http://dms.dot.gov.

Authority: 49 CFR 1.66.

By Order of the Maritime Administrator.

Dated: August 17, 2007.

Daron T. Threet,

Secretary, Maritime Administration.