Live Oak Plans LNG Plant on Calcasieu Channel
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Martin Houston, Chairman of Live Oak LNG, has announced a new natural gas liquefaction and export project, up to a $2 billion investment, to be developed in the Calcasieu waterway.
The $2 billion plant will be located on the Calcasieu Ship Channel and will create 100 direct jobs and 385 indirect jobs, the governor said. The permanent jobs will pay an average salary of about $75,000. About 1,000 construction workers will be hired.
The mid-sized project is being designed for a plant capacity of up to five million tonnes per annum production and will include two 130,000 m3 storage tanks, and port facilities with a jetty for standard size liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. The proposed site is about 350 acres and is situated within Calcasieu Parish on the west bank of the Calcasieu River.
Initial study work is already underway and Live Oak LNG will begin the permitting process within the next few weeks. The anticipated start-up of the plant is in late 2019.
Live Oak is a subsidiary of Houston-based Parallax Energy, which was launched last year to develop global LNG projects and a natural gas supply and trading business.
"This investment by Live Oak LNG is a welcome addition to the wealth of major industrial projects in Southwest Louisiana that are capitalizing on our state's energy infrastructure and our outstanding, skilled workforce," Jindal said in an issued statement. "The global demand for affordable, American-produced liquefied natural gas is on the rise, and Calcasieu Parish is ideally situated to serve that market with its deep-water ports and access to natural gas supplies."
