PEMBROKESHIRE firefighters will receive special training to deal with LNG incidents.

A spokesman for the Mid and West Wales Fire Brigade said specialist training programmes are being developed to deal with an LNG fire in the Milford Haven Waterway or at the Herbrandston and Waterston terminals.

These would take account of information gained from a recent visit to the Isle of Grain LNG site in Kent, where an operational site is being extended.

There are still concerns over plans to cut the number of firefighters at Haverfordwest, Milford Haven and Pembroke Dock.

These have not been eased by the fact that American fire chiefs in Boston harbour told a state committee on homeland security and federal affairs in February that the risk of an LNG explosion was more than the Boston Fire Department felt able to deal with.

* Another element in the proposed Liquified Natural Gas complex at Waterston was given the go-ahead on Tuesday, November 9th.

The construction of a nitrogen production plant for conditioning gas at the terminal was approved by county planners.

It will be sited on an area of land, within the former Gulf Refinery complex, used by the refinery for the treatment of oily sludge waste by land farming. It will be adjacent to the LNG terminal.

Petroplus has already carried out remediation work to bring the site up to standard for re-use for industrial purposes.

Councillors were informed that the quality and composition of gas distributed for use in the UK is controlled to a very close specification set by National Grid Transco (NGT), to ensure the safety and reliability of the supply network.

It is probable that some of the imported LNG will be 'richer' than gas derived from the UK Continental shelf and would have to be blended with nitrogen to meet the NGT specifications.

Nitrogen does not fall under the definition of a hazardous substance and therefore Health and Safety Executive was not against granting permission. There were no objections either from the Environment Agency.

Petroplus Tankstorage says the construction period will be nine to ten months, towards the latter part of the time when the main LNG plant is being built. Traffic predictions are seven to ten goods vehicles per day, but once complete no additional traffic movements would be generated other than under shutdown conditions.