Port Manatee signs $30 million deal for LNG terminal, pipeline

MANATEE, Fla. - A giant check for $425,000 presented on March 18 represented the downpayment on $2 million that Port Dolphin Energy will pay to Port Manatee in the near future.
The agreement the Manatee Port Authority board unanimously approved calls for Port Dolphin Energy leasing about 35 acres of port property and the right of way for a pipeline through the port.
This agreement continues the Port Authority’s commitment to creating jobs, board Chairman Larry Bustle said in a press release.
Port Dolphin Energy, a Delaware-based company, has been working on a plan since 2007 to build a deep-water port about 28 miles off Anna Maria Island for ships transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The LNG would be converted to natural gas and piped under the Gulf of Mexico to Port Manatee, where the pipes will come ashore and the gas transmitted to markets throughout Florida.