Jul. 17--Expansion plans are on schedule at Southern Natural Gas on Elba Island. But if you're waiting for the facility's newest -- and largest -- liquefied natural gas storage tank to get its first coat of camouflaging sky-blue paint, don't hold your breath. There's a lot still to be done before that can happen.

"Things are progressing well," said Bill Baerg, spokesman for El Paso Corp., parent company of the LNG facility.

"The outer tank shell is done and the docking facilities are in place. As soon as work gets to the point where it's feasible to do so, we'll start painting."

Right now, Baerg said, it looks like painting will start late this year, finishing up in March. The tank is expected to come on line sometime late next spring.

When it does, it will be the largest liquefied natural gas tank in the nation, capable of supplying all the natural gas needs of Georgia for four days, according to Southern Natural Gas senior vice president Norman Holmes.

And it's only the beginning.

Southern Natural Gas is in the process of doubling the storage and send-out capacity of the Elba terminal, one of only six such facilities in the continental U.S. where gas is imported and stored in its highly refrigerated liquid form.

Elba has four storage tanks in service now. Plans call for two more -- the one under construction and another tank expected to be completed and on line by 2014.

While the fifth tank may appear to be close to complete, appearances can be deceptive.

In March, the tank's 2 million-pound roof was lifted by air pressure from ground level inside the tank -- where it was built -- and immediately welded into place by about two dozen steelworkers.

Since then, another tank inside the first one has begun to take shape.

"Right now, we're on the fourth ring of 13," Baerg said this week.

Once that tank is done, insulation will be placed between the two tank walls, creating the thermos-like structure necessary to store the gas in its liquefied state -- at a chilly minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit.

To ship the product, converted back to a gaseous state, the company is installing nearly 200 miles of new pipeline in Georgia and South Carolina.

Elba Island is located in the Savannah River, about five miles east of Savannah and almost directly across from the proposed site of a deepwater container terminal in Jasper County on the South Carolina side.

Business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for Savannah Morning News. She can be reached at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com or 912-652-0324.