Noble Energy to Build LNG Plant in Colorado, USA

Noble Energy, Inc. announced plans to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in conjunction with the company’s Keota natural gas processing plant in rural northern Weld County.

“This LNG plant is part of Noble Energy’s continuing commitment to reduce emissions and improve the environment where we operate through the use of clean-burning natural gas as an engine fuel, displacing higher-polluting diesel. We continuously look for ways to enhance our environmental performance, and this facility is expected to help improve air quality by enabling us to utilize natural gas we produce right here in Northern Colorado to power many of our local operations,” said Ted Brown, Noble Energy Senior Vice President – Northern Region.

The company is an active supporter of local initiatives promoting the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel. Through its co-funding of the Weld County Smart Energy Plan, Noble Energy helped facilitate the construction of four public compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in Weld County. The company committed $5 million to provide Weld County schools with CNG school buses and construct a CNG refueling station. The company is also converting its truck fleet in the

DJ Basin to CNG vehicles – at the end of 2012, Noble Energy had 33 super-duty trucks running on CNG in the area.

“The DJ Basin is one of Noble Energy’s core operating areas and the company plans to invest $10 billion to safely and responsibly develop oil and natural gas resources in the region over the next five years,” said Brown.

The LNG facility, which is the first of its kind in Colorado, will have the capacity to produce up to 100,000 gallons of LNG per day. Noble Energy plans to utilize production from the facility to fuel the company’s rigs and other heavy equipment used in its DJ Basin operations. Noble Energy also expects to make LNG production available for other oil and natural gas producers and LNG users in the area.

The displacement of diesel by full utilization of LNG from the Keota facility is expected to significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. For example, the reductions in NOx are projected to be equivalent to removing 100,000 cars from the road.

Noble Energy has contracted Audobon Engineering to perform the front-end engineering and design work on the $45 million LNG facility. The target startup date for the Keota natural gas processing plant is mid-2014, and the company expects the LNG facility to be online shortly thereafter.

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Source: Noble Energy, March 22, 2013