Dominion Cove Point LNG is located on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, Maryland, south of Baltimore. It is one of the nation's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities.
Dominion acquired Cove Point from Williams on Sept. 5, 2002, and began receiving ships in the summer of 2003. In 2009, Dominion finished an expansion project that increased Cove Point's storage and production capacity by nearly 80 percent. Explore the left-margin links to learn more about the facility and LNG.
Dominion Cove Point will play an increasingly critical role in coming years. Natural gas is the energy of choice for many Americans, and demand is expected to grow through the next decade. Although there are vast reserves of natural gas in the United States, many are not yet available.
Reserves in a number of other countries are available and for sale, but the gas has to be transported. The most efficient way to transport natural gas across the ocean is to liquefy it and transport it in specially built ships. Dominion Cove Point is strategically located where it can receive transport vessels, store the LNG onshore, then transform it back to gas when it is needed to meet demand.
Facility Operation
Dominion Cove Point has a storage capacity of 14.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) and a daily send-out capacity of 1.8 BCF.
The terminal connects, via its own pipeline, to the major Mid-Atlantic gas transmission systems of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline, Columbia Gas Transmission and Dominion Transmission.
Receiving and Storing Gas
LNG pipesLNG arrives at Dominion Cove Point on specially designed LNG transport ships. These vessels transport LNG from various locations in the world, including Trinidad, Nigeria, Norway, Venezuela and Algeria.
At Dominion Cove Point, LNG is off-loaded at an offshore dock, stored for subsequent gasification and then delivered into the pipeline. View a drawing of the process. A single ship can bring about 34 million gallons of LNG — enough to meet the daily energy needs of more than 10 million homes.
LNG is pumped from ships at Dominion Cove Point's offshore dock through a series of pipes to insulated storage tanks.
In addition to linking natural gas supplies from non-U.S. sources with the high-growth natural gas markets in the Mid-Atlantic, Dominion Cove Point is positioned to serve existing Dominion Energy gas-fired generation facilities.
These include Possum Point, Remington, Ladysmith and Fairless Works.
