Suez Energy North America's subsidiary, Calypso LNG, LLC has received a letter from the United States Coast Guard deeming complete Calypso's application for a Deepwater Port License. A Notice of Application will be published in the Federal Register which will start a statutory review period for approval of a license to build and operate Calypso's proposed offshore liquefied natural gas facility.
On March 1, 2006, Calypso filed a Deepwater
Port License Application with the U.S. Coast Guard, which has jurisdiction for the permitting, operation and security for such facilities located in federal waters. The Calypso Deepwater Port is proposed to be located approximately 10 miles offshore from Port Everglades, Florida, and will comprise a marine offloading buoy and anchoring system that will reside approximately 150 feet below the ocean surface when not in use. It will connect to an undersea pipeline operated by another SUEZ subsidiary, Calypso U.S. Pipeline, LLC, which has the capacity to transport approximately 800 million cubic feet per day of natural gas to customers in Florida.
Besides being a new source of energy, the design of the deepwater port brings an added measure of reliability to Florida customers who have experienced prolonged service disruptions due to impacts of major hurricanes that typically hit the region each year. LNG vessels can disconnect from the deepwater port to move out of harm's way during severe weather and then reconnect to
the undersea unloading lines as soon as a major storm has moved out of the area.
A similar project is under development by another SUEZ subsidiary,
Neptune LNG, LLC. The Neptune Deepwater Port will be located off the coast of Massachusetts to serve Boston and the greater New England market. Development of this off-shore installation is within schedule and is targeted to be up and running in 2009.
SUEZ is currently the only major energy company that -- in addition to a diversified LNG supply portfolio -- owns and
operates LNG facilities on each side of the Atlantic Ocean -- at Everett, Massachusetts, serving the New England market, and at Zeebrugge, Belgium, serving the central European market.