DOE approves LNG exports to non-FTA countries from Oregon project
The US Department of Energy conditionally approved Jordan Cove Energy Project LP’s application to export LNG through its proposed terminal on Oregon’s coast to countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with the US.
The project near Coos Bay will be permitted to ship overseas as much as the 800 MMcfd of gas equivalent for 20 years subject to environmental review and final regulatory approvals, DOE’s Fossil Energy Office said in its Mar. 24 order.
Federal law assumes that gas exports to countries having an FTA with the US are in the national interest. For those that don’t have an FTA, DOE must make a determination before they are permitted.
DOE also said it has decided that the Jordan Cover project’s request for LNG export authorization to non-FTA countries was in the US national interest after considering possible economic, energy security, and environmental impacts, and reviewing more than 200,000 public comments.
The proposed installation would have 320,000 cu m of LNG storage capacity, 6 million tonnes/year of liquefaction capacity, and 1-1.2 million dth/day of sendout capacity, according to the project’s sponsor, Veresen Inc., a Calgary energy infrastructure development company.
Jordan Cove is the seventh LNG export project involving non-FTA countries to receive DOE approval, observed US Sen. Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore), who chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee before taking the Finance Committee’s helm earlier this year.
“This announcement is exactly what Coos Bay, North Bend, and America need: new jobs and new investment, while factoring in a changed geopolitical landscape through a case-by-case process,” he maintained.
“Given the situation in Ukraine, this license sends a positive signal to our allies and to energy markets that the United States is ready to join the growing global gas trade,” US Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.), separately said.
“While this license moves us in the right direction, I would be strongly opposed to any ‘pause for further study,’ as some have proposed,” she indicated.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.