LNG Watch: Clock Starts on Clearwater Port Environmental Review

• Company Attempts to Block Access to Documentation Related to Platform Safety Issues

BY HANS LAETZ

An application for a liquefied natural gas terminal 12.6 miles off the Oxnard coast is starting a lengthy environmental impact and licensing process that already has some coastal residents gearing up for another fight, and secrecy about parts of the project is looming as a key issue.

Data about the 28-year-old oil rig in the Pacific Ocean selected for reuse as an LNG terminal is being withheld from public eyes, prompting questions from coastal advocates who contend that Platform Grace is nearing the end of its original design life.

The rig, standing in 310 feet of salt water, has some minor structural problems, the company acknowledged in its application, and suffered underwater damage in two mishaps decades ago. But the applicant, NorthernStar Natural Gas, said Monday the rig is in excellent shape, will be inspected repeatedly and thoroughly, and the small amount of damage that exists can be effectively and easily repaired.

Although this project would not be visible from Malibu, it is 35 miles upwind of the city and the Malibu City Council is on record opposing it.

NorthernStar officials say they can build an LNG terminal that is cleaner and more coast-friendly than the proposal by BHP Billiton for an LNG terminal off Malibu that was rejected due to pollution, technical and safety deficiencies last spring.

But coastal environmentalists plan to kick off their opposition campaign with a picket line Thursday, when NorthernStar officials take Ventura County leaders on a whale-watching tour to hear about the new proposal.

Federal officials started a 330-day countdown clock to a decision deadline when they determined that the company’s 3141-page application is complete enough to begin analysis and review on Aug. 28. But state officials, who also must sign off on the request, have asked the company for clarification on numerous points.

The project could have its clock stopped if significant additional studies are needed. The BHP LNG terminal’s clock was halted twice, for a total of three years, while more than 120 major “data gaps” in its application were filled.

A preliminary review of the “Clearwater Port” documents by the Malibu Surfside News shows that several key reports, including structural analysis of the 28-year-old saltwater tower, are marked “proprietary” and are being withheld from public scrutiny.

NorthernStar wants to remove oil drilling equipment and build new decks on top of Platform Grace to regasify LNG. No ships will ever attach themselves to the oil rig, rather, they will attach to nearby buoys and unload LNG into flexible hoses that reach the ocean floor before heading back up the rig legs.

In its application, the company says it has extensively tested the platform’s 12 legs, and says the legs provide “substantial system redundancy, which is an important attribute in terms of resistance to extreme earthquake loading.” Quakes up to 6.5 magnitude are predicted to occur in the area within the next 50 years by the federal government.

The company disclosed last week that the oil platform suffered structural damage in a construction mishap when it was built in 1979, and that an unexpected natural gas boil-up in the sandy ocean floor beneath the platform supports carved out a 40-foot deep crater 50-75 feet in diameter between the platform legs in 1982.

That undersea crater was filled in with sand, but two subsequent safety studies more than 10 years later did not specifically address those repairs, the company said in the application. Those studies found that “generally the platform is in good condition.”

Answering a reporter’s question about that, the company said in a statement Monday that the crater “was a result of drilling an (oil) well. The new use as a terminal will remove all oil and gas drilling permanently, and the potential for similar gas releases from ‘significant depths’ below the ocean floor will not exist.”

The application notes that the overall weight of the oil rig will be decreased by 30 percent when it is converted to LNG duty, but does not provide any data to show that the oil rig—which it says needs at least 17 structural repairs—is sufficient to hold its place in the ocean currents.

NorthernStar said structural analysis “has demonstrated that Platform Grace will comply with the federal requirements for the reuse as an LNG regasification platform, based on the loads (mass and distribution) currently proposed. Analysis to date has incorporated a high degree of conservatism.”

NorthernStar says federal laws leave it to the government to decide which data is proprietary and “may” be withheld from public scrutiny during the decision-making process. But the law quoted by the company Monday does not prohibit the company itself from deciding to release information.

“It is up to the company to decide what it wants to release,” asserted attorney Linda Krop at the Environmental Defense Center. “Knowing how concerned the public is about this project, it would be appropriate for the company to provide the information [about structural safety].”

Also being kept secret are details filed by NorthernStar relating to the proposed LNG plant’s pipelines through the City of Oxnard, or its findings in sections labeled “LNG Unloading,” “Hazards Report” and “Pipeline Safety.” The project includes major new high-pressure gas lines within yards of residences and businesses in Oxnard. Although such data is often kept secret due to terrorism concerns, the already well-organized residents in the area are expected to demand answers to their public safety concerns.

One proposed path for the high-pressure, 36-inch natural gas line would pass along the floodplain of the Santa Clara River, near major subdivisions being built on Oxnard’s north side. The alternative passes several schools and the city’s hospital.

The company stressed Monday that structural integrity, pipeline safety and other aspects of the project that cannot be released to the public are tightly regulated and will be double-checked by independent experts before the permit can be issued.

“Clearwater Port supports transparency and openness wherever possible in the review of our application to construct and operate an LNG receiving terminal,” it said in the statement. “All aspects of the project will be exhaustively examined by agency staff and decision-making authorities during the environmental review process.”

But coastal advocates point out that many of the law violations and other problems with the BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port project were not uncovered by agency staff, but were exposed by critics of the project who analyzed public data and found errors, omissions and other problems that proved fatal to the terminal.

“Right out of the gate, they are making the same mistakes that BHP did,” said Environment Pacific’s Rory Cox. “They are acting as if the public’s trust is to be taken for granted, and the public’s safety is to be dealt with in a secretive manner.”

In the other project on the local LNG front, no documents have been released yet for the Woodside “OceanWay” LNG project proposed for 22 miles off Point Dume.

That project’s application was accepted as complete on Sept. 4, starting its 330-day countdown to approval or rejection.

Photo credit,

REUSE—NorthernStar wants to transform a 28-year-old oil rig, Platform Grace, into an LNG facility despite questions about its structural soundness. In 2004, a Malibu city official suggested in the context of another LNG project that Grace, not used since 1995, be sunk and turned into a “natural reef.”