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.

Florida governor OKs Port Dolphin Energy deepwater port LNG project

TAMPA BAY, Fla. – Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has approved Port Dolphin Energy’s deepwater port project that would supply natural gas to Florida.
As part of the federal permitting process, Crist is required to support, oppose or say he takes no position for the proposed liquid natural gas receiving terminal, a release said.
Port Dolphin plans to build a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico 28 miles west of Manatee County. Tankers would dock at the port and link up with a liquid natural gas pipeline that transports gas to Port Manatee and then inland, eventually connecting with the state’s natural gas pipeline grid.
The project is expected to generate more than $150 million in direct economic impact to Port Manatee and Manatee County during the next 20 years, the release said.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2011.