Washington, September 30
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with President Barack Obama, the US has approved construction of a liquefied natural gas project that will ship the fuel to India.

US regulators gave the final approval yesterday for Dominion Resources to build the east coast’s first natural gas liquefaction plant at its Cove Point site on the Chesapeake Bay. State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd has taken 40% of the project’s capacity to liquefy 5.75 million tonnes a year of natural gas for export in ships. The $ 3.8 billion project is likely to be completed in June 2017.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the permit for the Cove Point terminal in Maryland, Dominion Resources said in a statement. “We are pleased to receive this final approval that allows us to start constructing this important project that offers significant economic, environmental and geopolitical benefits,” said Diane Leopold, president of Dominion Energy.

Modi on the last leg of five-day US visit will meet Obama here to reinvigorate an economic relationship between the two nations. The US Energy Department has approved Cove Point’s exports to both free-trade and non-free trade agreement countries, said FERC’s statement. — PTI