Firm Says Process for Shipping Gas Is Safer

Instead of using terminals, the company would convert natural gas from a liquid state on tankers and deliver it through a pipeline.

A major Australian energy firm plans to ship liquefied natural gas to Southern California with a new process that it says is safer and more environmentally sound than the use of the terminals that three other companies want to construct in the state.

A Woodside Energy Ltd. subsidiary is set to announce its plans Wednesday at a Sacramento news conference but will not disclose where off the coast it hopes to build its system. The project could supply 10% to 15%of California’s natural gas supply, said Jane Cutler, president of the Woodside subsidiary that is leading the effort.
The firm’s entry into the California market could shake up the current liquified natural gas debate over the safest way to import the fuel.

Three terminals have been proposed, one at the port in Long Beach and two off the coast of Ventura County. But unlike those projects, Woodside officials say, their plan would not require building a terminal to convert the liquid back to a gas. Instead, the company would construct special tankers that could do that and would deliver the natural gas directly into an underwater pipeline 15 miles off shore.

LA Times