New Fortress Wyalusing LNG Terminal

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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New Fortress Wyalusing LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG terminal in Pennsylvania, United States.

Location

The terminal would be built in Wyalusing Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, United States.

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Project Details

• Owner: Bradford County Real Estate Partners LLC
• Owner: New Fortress Energy
• Location: Wyalusing Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, United States
• Coordinates: 41.653541, -76.233213 (exact)
• Proposed Capacity: 3-4 million gallons per day (1.76 - 2.35 million tonnes per year)
• Status: Proposed
  • Formerly Shelved
• Type: Export
• Trains: 2
• Start Year: 2024
  • Formerly 2020 (train 1), 2021 (train 2)
• Associated Infrastructure: Gibbstown Deepwater Port LNG Terminal

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Description

New Fortress Energy LLC is developing plans for two liquefaction facilities for natural gas produced in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania, according to a fall 2018 filing with federal regulators. The first facility is in the advanced design and permitting stages and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to a registration statement filed with the U.S Securities and Exchanges Committee. The second liquifier train is expected to be online by the first quarter of 2021.

According to media reports, New Fortress Energy LLC has purchased 265 acres to build a liquefaction plant near Wyalusing Township. The company also said that a tanker truck fleet would move LNG from its first facility in Pennsylvania to a port along the Delaware River about 200 miles away, where it expects to finalize a lease for a facility (later proposed as Gibbstown Deepwater Port LNG Terminal). The liquefaction plants New Fortress intends to build are expected to cost $750-850 million.

Bradford County, however, is among one of the largest gas-producing regions in the Marcellus. Unconventional wells in Bradford, Susquehanna, Washington and Greene counties have consistently accounted for two-thirds of all the gas produced in Pennsylvania.

The company said it has already entered into a 15-year supply contract for feedgas, with pricing that is “generally fixed” at $2.50/MMBtu. The facilities would be capable of producing 3-4 million gallons/day of liquified natural gas (LNG).

As of 2019 development of the project had stalled but New Fortress claimed that it would restart with 2 years.

In March 2022, New Fortress Energy agreed to pause the project, at least temporarily, in a settlement with three environmental groups that had sought to overturn its air emissions permit: PennFuture, the Clean Air Council, and the Sierra Club. To restart the project, the company must begin the state permitting process again.

In March 2023, New Fortress Energy told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to apply for updated permits to build the facility. The project is no longer considered shelved.

However, in April 2023, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) denied New Fortress a special permit to transport LNG from the facility to Gibbstown Deepwater Port LNG Terminal, presenting a barrier for the project to move forward.

In April 2024, FERC asked the sponsors of New Fortress Wyalusing LNG Terminal and Gibbstown Deepwater Port LNG Terminal whether the projects were still alive, given that it would not be possible to transport LNG by rail from the former to the latter. The sponsores, Bradford County Real Estate Partners and Delaware River Partners, indicated that both proposals are still active, and that LNG-by-truck is being considered as an alternative, while awaiting FERC's decision as to whether it will assert jurisdiction over the project.

According to Delaware Currents, LNG-by-truck would present its own obstacles: "The project called for as many as 400 trucks per day snaking through or near densely populated communities, such as Allentown, Philadelphia, Reading, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Camden, N.J., and/or for trains of up to 100 specialized tankers to make the trip to Gibbstown." Environmental advocates responded to this proposal calling it “unnecessary and reckless” (Beyond Dirty Fuels) and “absurd at best and deadly at worst" (PennFuture).

Opposition

According to FracTracker citizens are organizing against the terminal and raising concerns about its potential to damage human health and the environment.