“FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee announced today that the agency is creating a new division in its Office of Energy Projects to accommodate the growing number and complexity of applications to site, build and operate liquefied natural gas export terminals,” the release said.
The new Division of LNG Facility Review & Inspection (DLNG) will employ 20 existing LNG staff members in Washington with another eight full-time staff members to be hired to run a Regional Office in Houston in Texas, the FERC said.
“As the demand for US LNG and the number and complexity of project applications has grown, the Commission has experienced a similar growth in the need for FERC to expand its oversight in this program area,” Chatterjee said in the release.
The division’s staff works on such issues as engineering reviews, coordinating safety reviews with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration at the Department of Transportation and preparing engineering analyses to appear in environmental documents, FERC said.