US congressman Clay Higgins and other members of the Louisiana congressional delegation sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) urging approval of Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG project in Louisiana.
In his letter to the regulator’s chairman Kevin McIntyre, Higgins reminded that FERC issues a schedule of notice in the Federal Register (FR) on January 3, identifying a schedule of June 2018 for the draft environmental impact statement, while the issuance of the final EIS is scheduled for October 12, 2018, for the Driftwood LNG project and the Driftwood pipeline.
“It is imperative that the permits for these projects are completed by the issuance date stated in the FR,” the letter reads.
Signatories of the letter, besides congressman Higgins, include, U.S. senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and U.S. representatives Steve Scalise, Mike Johnson, Ralph Abraham and Garret Graves.
The projects are slated for construction to begin in 2019, with the first LNG liquefaction facility starting operation in 2023 and reaching fully-operational status by 2025.
The letter notes that the two projects received community support and have a combined investment impact of $16.5 billion, with the construction phase of the Driftwood terminal and associated pipeline creating approximately 6,400 direct jobs.
With the economic benefits of the project in mind, together with the community and state support, the signatories urged FERC to review the application “as expeditiously as possible.”
Driftwood LNG project will include 20 liquefaction units, each having an expected production capacity of 1.38 million tons per year of LNG and three 235,000 cubic meter storage tanks as well as three marine loading berths, to be constructed in four phases.