1010 

 124 



3. Accessible harbor. 



4. Moderate amount of flat land available. 



Facilities cannot be expected to stray far from the coasts as piping 

 liquid gas is prohibitively expensive. 



A major regasification facility with a capacity of 4 billion cubic 

 feet per day (compared to present world capacity of 2.8 billion)" is 

 being planned for Los Angeles harbor. The terminal is estimated to 

 cost $350 million, occupying 59 acres. Labor requirements are 1500 

 persons maximum during construction and approximately 90 persons 

 in operation. 2^ All impacts of this terminal, and LNG terminals in 

 general, will be restricted to the immediate coastal areas. 



E. Oil mid gas treatment 



At some point between production and distribution, both oil and 

 gas must be treated. Oil is separated from its associated gas, and waste 

 Water is separated, treated, and disposed. The sludge and sand sus- 

 pended in the oil are removed. Similarly, gas is separated from the 

 waste water and liquid hydrocarbons; the familiar gas odor is in- 

 jected at this time for safety purposes. A further (and optional) step 

 in gas processing involves the stripping of butanes and propanes from 

 the natural gas. 



Oil 



Crude oil is often treated aboard the production platform. In these 

 cases, the crude can be tankered or piped directly. Otherwise the crude 

 is pumped ashore as a two-phase mixture (both oil and gas). Such 

 mixtures can be pumped only a limited distance; therefore the plat- 

 forms involved must be relatively close to shore, and treatment facil- 

 ities as near the coast as possible. 



Facilities commonly gather several production pipelines for treat- 

 ment (hence their common name, "pipeline terminals"). The usual 

 capacity ranges from 30,000-100,000 BPD, coupled with a storage 

 capacity of 2-3 days production. Total land use varies between 20 and 

 40 acres.^® Because of their limited size and siting necessities, the im- 

 pacts of these facilities will be limited to a strip several miles wide 

 along the coast. 



Gas 

 Two separate procedures exist : separation and stripping. If strip- 

 ping is desired only one facility is needed for both operations. A separa- 

 tion facility alone requires about 8 acres.^" The size of a joint facility 

 (gas processing plant) is highly variable, having capacities ranging 

 from ujider 150,000 to one or two billion cubic feet per day.^^ Two stud- 

 ies project slightly different sizes for a representative plant.^^ 



Capacity (million cubic feet) Employees Land (acres) 



500 55 20 



300 21 75 



^ Stanford University. 1975. "Impact on California's Coastal Zone From Proposed Off- 

 shore Oil and Gas Development", p. 134. 

 » Stanford University, p. 241. 

 » rx)uislana FEIS. Vol. II. p. 196. 



»> BLM 1974. "FEIS on OCE Leasing off Texas, Sale No. 34", Vol. I, p. 405. 

 « Programmatic FEIS, Vol. II, p. 207. 

 »» Proyramroatic F?3IS. Vol. II, p. ?08. 



