To meet the demands of a shrinking supply of domestic natural gas, Sempra Energy International developed the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal on the west coast of North America.

Challenge: The project required an accelerated schedule, as the Mexican government would permit only one of five competing sites. Crucial to this schedule was completing difficult offshore and onshore investigations and passing several independent technical reviews. There also was a lack of available drilling platforms in the western U.S. to provide shallow and deeper water explorations in rough seas.

Solution: Kleinfelder performed a geotechnical investigation and construction phase oversight for this six-year project. For the drilling platform, Kleinfelder retrofitted a 60-meter local barge with eight-point mooring, hired multiple subcontractors, and facilitated import and export of equipment into Mexico. The investigation included landslide studies, evaluations of on-site faults and seismic modeling, and several other onshore and offshore tests and surveys.

Client Benefit: Minimal agency review comments on Kleinfelder’s investigation resulted in this becoming the only permitted facility and enabling construction to proceed on schedule. In addition to negating any landslide theories that would have stopped development, our age dating of potentially active faults enabled the facility to meet high regulatory standards without impacting design.