BOSTON (AP) – The operator of a liquefied natural gas depot in Everett on Monday proposed building New England’s first offshore LNG terminal, a $900 million project that comes as proposed onshore LNG facilities face opposition because of safety concerns.

The site where Houston-based Tractebel LNG North America LLC wants to build is about 10 miles south of Gloucester and 22 miles northeast of Boston, in roughly the same area where another Texas company already has proposed its own offshore LNG unloading facility.

Both proposals await regulatory reviews of their impacts on public safety, the marine environment and shipping and fisheries. Tractebel will file applications Tuesday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, company spokesman Doug Bailey said.

While LNG shipments could help even out spikes in energy prices and meet rising energy demand, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have raised concern that LNG tankers are a potential target. Critics say LNG terminals do not belong in densely populated communities, an argument that has slowed several proposals in New England and elsewhere.

Tractebel’s deepwater proposal “is an alternative that needs to be looked at carefully,” Bailey said. “We need to decide as a nation if this is a more palatable alternative, and which companies are the best-positioned to operate those facilities.”

The nation’s first deepwater offshore LNG terminal, located off Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, already has received permits and is expected to begin taking deliveries in March, said Doug Pizzi, a spokesman for the Gloucester-area offshore terminal proposed last spring by Woodlands, Texas-based Excelerate Energy. Pizzi said he did not consider that $200 million project in direct competition with Monday’s proposal from Tractebel.

“I think there’s enough room in the market for a number of suppliers,” he said.

He said Excelerate’s proposal has a head start on the one from Tractebel, and could receive necessary permits in May 2006 and become operational in 2007.

Tractebel said the application review for its proposal could be wrapped up by the middle of next year, with construction taking another three years.

The $900 million cost of its project, compared to the $200 million price tag for Excelerate’s proposal, stems in part from Tractebel’s costs to build new ships capable of converting liquefied gas back into gas form, Bailey said. Ships that bring LNG to onshore terminals leave that task to facilities at the terminals themselves.

Tractebel’s proposed terminal would be developed by a subsidiary called Neptune LNG LLC. A sister company, Distrigas of Massachusetts, has operated the Everett depot since 1971.

“After much analysis, we believe operating the Everett terminal and this deepwater port simultaneously will help meet the increase in demand for natural gas while continuing to satisfy the New England energy market’s need for highly reliable service,” said Rick Grant, president and chief executive of Tractebel LNG North America.

State Sen. Jarrett Barrios, D-Cambridge, chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, applauded Monday’s announcement, saying the proposal could avoid the public opposition he expects would greet any proposal to expand operations at Everett.

“I am delighted they are looking at locating offshore where an inherently dangerous facility of this sort belongs in the first place,” said Barrios, whose district includes the Everett terminal. “I’m most pleased because until now this company has argued it was economically infeasible to operate offshore.”

The offshore facility would provide an average of 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to the New England market, enough to heat about 1.5 million homes.