By KRYSTEL ROLLE, Guardian Staff Reporter, krystel@nasguard.com

The AES company is 'getting a little tired' of waiting on approval from the government for the controversial liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant they are seeking to build on Ocean Cay.

It's been more than seven years since the company approached the government and AES is still waiting on final approvals.

Aaron Samson, Managing Director of LNG for AES, said while the company has not decided to cancel the project, it hopes that the government would rule in its favor sometime soon, as it is looking at some other proposals at the same time.

"It's hard to say time's up after seven years, but there are competing proposals out there and it's a little bit of a race. When another one gets built, it's not that the other one won't get built, but it might not get built for five years," says Samson.

"This project represents about five years of Florida growth. People ask, why are you still here after seven years? Everything I do takes three to five years. We've built big power plants and LNG terminals and they all take that time frame. So after seven years you're getting a little tired," said Samson.

He was speaking at a special LNG presentation for engineers at the SuperClub Breezes on Wednesday night.

AES Corp. purchased the aragonite mining plant at the 90-acre man-made Ocean Cay in the Spring of 2001, solely to invest $650 million to construct, own and operate a LNG pipeline. The company wants to build its pipeline between Ocean Cay, Bimini, and Dania Beach, Florida. It also proposes to construct a terminal to receive liquefied natural gas via ocean tankers, store the liquid gas, re-convert it to natural gas through warming and send it to the U.S. via a 94-mile pipeline.

Samson said this destination is advantageous for a number of reasons and added that the elements of the project have improved over the years.

"The fundamentals of the project are actually getting better. Gas prices are much higher, so I'm getting a little fixed fee in the middle here to process BP, Exxon or Shell's LNG for a fee and send it to Florida. My fee has gone from 40 cents five years ago to 60 or 70 cents today, because of steel prices in Florida," he added.

"So the fundamentals have gotten better. Florida needs a different supply of storage. This project stores seven and a half billion cubic feet of gas. There is no natural gas storage in Florida and Florida has the fastest growing gas needs with no storage. This (Ocean Cay plant) has a storage component with a direct link to Florida, so this has a number of components that makes this important for Florida. But it's not really economic, it's about reliability," he continued.

Stephen Wrinkle, president of the Bahamian Contractors Association, who was at the meeting on Wednesday, encouraged the AES representative to hang on to the project.

"There's nothing new with time delays here. It's an unfortunate national circumstance that we all suffer. So you're not unique in that aspect of it," he assured Samson.

While it doesn't' seem likely that AES will pull out of the deal, it has happened in the past, which has sparked some concern that AES may follow suit.

In 2006, Suez Energy (formerly Tractebel), the company that was seeking to build an LNG plant in Grand Bahama, after waiting several years for the government to make a decision on their liquefied natural gas proposals, decided to suspend its Bahamas proposal.

At that time the government had been indicating that a decision would be announced in "short order" since 2002 and up to the time Suez Energy pulled out of the deal in 2006, no announcement had been made.

Suez Energy CEO (at the time) William Utt reportedly told U.S. media that the government was "less able to evaluate and feel comfortable making commitments for industrial development." Referring to the Christie administration, he added that they were more focused on tourism.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources with responsibility for LNG, Leslie Miller, said this is the perfect time for Bahamians to take a look at the regassification facility.

"It is time for The Bahamas to consider the parameters of LNG. First of all there has never been an accident or loss of life in any LNG regassification facility in 62 years. And during the Iran/Iraq war, missiles were fired at an LNG regassification facility and nothing happened, there was no loss of life," he said.