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Freeport LNG Plan To Shift Focus From Imports To Exports To Boost Jobs
Posted: Monday, January 3, 2011 2:00 am
Freeport LNG plan to shift focus from imports to exports to boost jobs
By ALAN NIESCHWIETZ
QUINTANA — Providing the paperwork is OK’d, Freeport LNG will be changing from an import to an export facility in the next couple of years, but officials there say the biggest change locals are likely to notice will be the increased economic activity.
“It’s a significant project in terms of jobs,” said Mark Mallett, vice president of operations for Freeport LNG, who was on site inspecting the facility last week. “Twenty to 30 permanent jobs here at this one operation, and 1,000 jobs during peak construction.”
When it was built, the idea of the plant was to take imported liquified natural gas, turn it back into a gas, then send it out to domestic markets through a pipeline, he said. But as more domestic gas fields were discovered, especially the rich shale finds in Texas, demand for foreign natural gas dropped to next to nothing.
The money now is to do the original process in reverse, Mallett said.
As far as what the place will look like in 2015, if all goes as planned and when construction is done, he said it will pretty much look the same, with just some more stuff on the property within the site’s fenceline.
“A third tank, one dock and the liquefication facilities, which will be very similar to what you currently see,” Mallett said.
The tank will be built right next to the current two, he said, and the dock and new liquefaction facility will be placed by the existing dock, near the white tanks belonging to ExxonMobil.
See photo in attached PDF.
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