Hawaii Gas Gets LNG Approval

Macquarie Infrastructure Company said that its Hawaii Gas business has received approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (HPUC) to land containerized liquefied natural gas in Hawaii. The decision by the HPUC was issued on March 6, 2014.

Hawaii Gas is currently the only company in Hawaii approved to introduce LNG into the state.

Hawaii Gas intends to ship LNG from the U.S. mainland and use it as a backup fuel source for its synthetic natural gas operations on Oahu. The initiative will increase the reliability of its fuel supply to residential and commercial customers.

“Our Hawaii Gas business has been diligently pursuing its LNG strategy for the past few years,” said James Hooke, Chief Executive Officer of MIC. “We’re pleased with the decision of the HPUC and look forward to having Hawaii Gas bring a relatively lower cost, clean-burning energy source to Hawaii.”

Hawaii Gas intends to use ISO (International Organization for Standardization) containers to ship LNG from the West Coast to Oahu on conventional container ships. ISO containers typically hold approximately 10,000 gallons of LNG. The LNG will be re-gasified and introduced into Hawaii Gas’ distribution pipelines in Honolulu using a mobile vaporization unit.

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