US FERC to decide on Marathon Alaska LNG import project by March 2020

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said on Wednesday it planned to make a decision by March 12, 2020 on Marathon Petroleum Corp's plan to convert the Kenai LNG export plant in Alaska into an import plant:

* FERC said it planned to issue an environmental assessment on the project on Dec. 13, 2019. The agency said it has to make an authorization decision within 90 days of issuing the environmental assessment.

* Marathon's Trans-Foreland Pipeline Co LLC unit asked FERC in March for permission to modify the existing Kenai LNG export facility so it could receive a cargo of LNG that would produce natural gas to be used at the company's Kenai refinery located next to the LNG facility.

* Trans-Foreland in May asked FERC for a decision on its application by Aug. 31, 2019 so the project could be modified and receive an LNG cargo by August 2020.

* Marathon said it had no comment at this time on FERC's planned decision date, which is after the company's proposed decision date.

* The Kenai LNG export plant entered service in 1969. The plant was the only LNG export facility in North America for 47 years until Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass export terminal in Louisiana entered service in February 2016. Nearly all of the LNG from Kenai went to Japan.

* ConocoPhillips, the operator of Kenai, mothballed the facility in 2015 before selling it to a unit of Andeavor in February 2018.