US East Coast joins the LNG liquefaction, export race

Dominion (NYSE:D) has filed an application with the Department of Energy to make its Cover Point LNG import and gasification terminal in Maryland bi-directional, allowing the facility to liquefy shale gas production and export it globally.

Dominion Cove Point LNG

Dominion hopes to build liquefaction units at the existing facility, with a processing capacity of 1 billion cubic feet of LNG a day or 7.82 million metric tons a year.

"Dominion Cove Point has connections to several interstate pipelines and is well-positioned to provide export customers access to abundant and diverse domestic gas supply," said Thomas Farrell II, chairman, president and CEO of Dominion. "The facility is particularly well-situated to export gas production from the prolific Marcellus Shale and promising Utica Shale formations."

The Cove Point LNG facility is well positioned, in comparison to the proposed Gulf Coast LNG projects, to receive natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and emerging Utica Shale in Ohio. Additionally, Dominion can use existing pipeline to move the natural gas.

Increasing production from vast shale resources has created a natural gas glut in the United States, and various downstream companies are looking to create an international market for US natural gas by turning it into LNG and exporting it by tanker.

Canada also has a number of LNG projects ongoing to export its shale resources.

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Phaedra Friend Troy is the content director for PennEnergy.com, an all-energy website that provides oil and gas, power and infrastructure news, analysis, reports and more. Sign up for a free daily enewsletter today.