Suez Energy North America received the last few state permits it needs to begin construction on its deepwater liquefied natural gas port proposed about 10 miles southeast of Gloucester, company executives said yesterday.

The project received a water quality certification from the state Department of Environmental Protection and coastal zone management consistency certification from the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office.

Clay Harris, president and CEO of Suez North America, said in a statement that the company still plans to begin operations of its liquefied natural gas terminal by the end of 2009.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a permit July 28 allowing it to operate two underwater buoys that will serve as docks for large tankers to discharge natural gas, transported in the vessels as supercooled liquefied natural gas. The buoys will be connected to the Hubline pipe that runs underwater from Salem to Quincy.

"We're pleased that another critical permit has been secured," said Julie Vitek, a Suez spokeswoman.

Suez is still waiting on a water usage permit, also from the EPA, a dredging permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a mineral usage and right-of-way permit from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Suez hired INTEC Engineering, an international deepwater engineering company, to build an 11-mile connector pipe from its two buoys to the Hubline. According to a statement from Suez, that work has begun.

Excelerate Energy LLC, which proposed a similar liquefied natural gas system about 13 miles southeast of Gloucester, is building its 16-mile connection pipeline and buoy system, which is expected to begin operating by December.

Each system will receive massive tankers filled with liquefied natural gas. When the tankers dock, the liquid will be evaporated and discharged through the buoys into the pipeline.

Suez signed a lease beginning July 1 and extending through the 20-year expected life span of the company's terminal to rent office space in the Cruiseport Gloucester Marine Terminal. It will include office space for managers, staff and support personnel.

The lease agreement is also expected to create 24 jobs, which will be filled by advertising locally, rather than bringing candidates from other branches of the company, and add $10 million to the local economy over 20 years, company executives said.

Excelerate will locate its operations center in Salem. That site will have 17 employees who will oversee the LNG facility, supervise operations when tankers arrive at the deepwater port and run a vessel that will ferry people back and forth.

The two ports are within five miles of each other in a section of ocean called Block 125, east of Marblehead, that is popular because of the abundance of fish and its proximity to shore.

Each terminal and the tankers that will dock at them will have an 800-yard security perimeter in which other boats cannot travel.

Because federal regulations limit the amount of time fishermen are allowed to spend at sea, local advocates of the fishing industry, as well as local elected officials, have said the security perimeters will force fishermen to travel farther and use more time at sea getting to their catch.

Environmentalists fear the increased ship traffic could kill endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Former Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs Robert Golledge Jr. issued environmental certificates for the two LNG ports on Dec. 1 and 12 and ordered a total of $47 million in mitigation funding from the two companies for affected communities and industries. Of that, $12.6 million will go to a nonprofit organization to be established in Gloucester to buy and lease fishing permits from fishermen who want to leave the industry.

Excelerate paid its entire mitigation obligation in May, including its share to the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund.

It also includes an acoustic system designed to detect right whales and relay information to vessels approaching the terminals of the animals' presence. Six of the 10 buoys are in place around Excelerate's construction zone; the remainder will be installed once the terminal is finished.