Cove Point Gas Dock to Switch to Export Facility?

Dramatic Reversal for Natural Gas on Chesapeake Bay

In a sign of how drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation is transforming the region’s energy landscape, owners of a liquid natural gas import terminal on the Chesapeake Bay want to transform the facility to export gas.

The Virginia-based Dominion power company announced yesterday that it has applied to the U.S. Department of Energy for approval to rebuild the Cove Point liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in southern Maryland into a “bi-directional” facility, capable of exporting up to 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, according to the company’s website.

Since it was built in 1978, Cove Point -- one of the largest LNG terminals in the U.S. -- has been the docking point for massive ships importing super-cooled, liquefied natural gas from countries around the world, including Algeria, Trinidad, Nigeria, Norway and Venezuela.

But import now will become export.

Why? Surging natural gas production in the U.S. from the Marcellus shale, a formation of black rock permeated with gas that lies under Pennsylvania, New York, Western Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio, and the nearby Utica shale, according to Dominion.

I had noticed that we were seeing less ships come into the Gas Dock, but I hadn't thought that it might be the result of increased natural gas production in the region, and that less imports were needed. 

Imagine if the US were to become a net energy exporter from the natural gas industry. They could hire some of those unemployed kids protesting Wall Street.  Or not.

The major change needed at the Old Dominion site (it's hard to remember that there is big storage facility on land there as well), is that a plant to cool the natural gas to a liquid for transport will need to be added.  Then the cold liquid natural gas can be pumped out to the gas dock for loading onto tankers.