Elba Island is an island in the
Savannah River, near the US port city of
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...
on the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. It functions as an import and export facility for
liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the vol ...
. The island lies five miles downstream from the city of Savannah, and is part of
Chatham County, Georgia. Its name comes from the Mediterranean island of
Elba
Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano Nationa ...
.
In the early 1970s, the US energy company
Sonat built an import and storage facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the island. Another large project, completed in 2020, expanded the facility to liquefy and export natural gas. In that project, which cost about $2 billion,
Kinder Morgan (a large US energy company) constructed ten liquefaction units.
LNG terminal
Liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the vol ...
(LNG) is used to transport natural gas in a highly compressed form. It is commonly used to allow shipments by ocean vessels. LNG is maintained at −260 °F or colder and is 600 times as dense as air-temperature natural gas.
LNG import and regassification terminal
Elba Island is an existing LNG import terminal located on Elba Island, in Chatham County, Georgia. It was built by
Sonat, Inc., based in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
,
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...
, for its
Southern Natural Gas
Southern Natural Gas Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a natural gas pipeline company that was founded in 1928 and is currently a division of Kinder Morgan. The company was a division of Birmingham-based Sonat Inc. until 1999 when ...
division. The initial authorization for the Elba Island facility was issued in 1972. LNG shipments ceased during the first half of 1980. On March 16, 2000, the project received Commission authorization to re-commission and renovate the LNG facilities.
LNG liquefaction and export terminal
On June 2, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave approval for the Elba Liquefaction Project. The approximate $2 billion project will be constructed and operated at the existing Elba Island LNG Terminal near Savannah, Georgia. The first of 10 liquefaction units is expected to be placed in service in the second quarter of 2018, with the remaining nine units coming online before the end of 2018. This project is supported by a 20-year contract with Shell.
In 2012, the Elba Liquefaction Project received authorization from the Department of Energy to export to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries. An application to export to non-FTA countries is pending, but is not required for the project to move ahead. The liquefaction project is expected to have a total capacity of approximately 2.5 million tonnes per year of LNG for export, equivalent to approximately 350,000 Mcf per day of natural gas.
Kinder Morgan is expanding Elba with newly designed modular units produced by Shell, which has subscribed to 100 percent of the facility's export capacity of 2.5 million tons per year for 20 years. Kinder Morgan purchased Shell's 49 percent equity interest in the project summer 2015.
LNG tanker ships used for export typically range from 1.5 to 3.7 BCF (billion cubic feet) equivalent capacity (50,000 to 170,000 cubic meters), thus the Elba LNG terminal should be able to export approximately one tanker per week, depending on the capacity of the tanker. Larger tankers would take approximately two weeks of LNG production to fill.
Alternatively, LNG bunker fueling vessels used to fuel cruise liners and container ships typically hold 4,000 to 20,000 cubic meters (1 million to 5 million gallons). Elba Island will produce approximately 10,000 cubic meters (2.5 million gallons) per day of LNG and Shell may use some or all of that production to satisfy US LNG marine fuel demand. Shell has announced they will have a 4,000-cubic-meter (1 million gallon) LNG bunker fueling vessel operating on the US southeast coast, but it has not said where the needed LNG would be sourced.
References
*''This article includes information from the Energy Information Administration''
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Islands of Chatham County, Georgia
Islands of Georgia (U.S. state)