Although it is not a well known name in the energy industry, NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. aims to be recognizable by the time in 2010 when it opens its proposed Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal on the Oregon side upriver about 40 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean-hugging town of Astoria, OR. The next step is a completed draft environmental impact report (EIR) or an announcement on a major source of LNG in the next two to three months, said Gary Coppedge, the firm’s president, during an interview with NGI late Thursday.

“By far, we are the furthest along of all the [four other proposals] for siting a LNG facility in the Pacific Northwest,” said Coppedge, who works out of an office in New Mexico. “We also are the only one proposing to supply gas only to Oregon and Washington. The other proposal that is in the process right now [Jordan Cove in Coos Bay, OR, along the south-central Pacific Coast] is proposing to sell all of its gas to California.

“Basically, we’re in line to have all of our permits in place by July next year [a year from now],” Coppedge said, “and then start construction shortly thereafter.” Does that assume contracts will be in place for buying and selling LNG supplies? “By that time, we will have contracts,” he said.

Coppedge said currently the privately-held NorthernStar, which maintains offices in Astoria, is in negotiations and predicted “we’ll have some signed contracts sometime later this year.” He said the project is on a typical timeline for a LNG terminal. A final environmental statement from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should be out in the first quarter next year.

NorthernStar is undeterred by organized local opposition that has developed since the firm announced its plans in March 2005, and Coppedge said he thinks the proponents have picked up more support across the board (politicians, business leaders and average citizens) in recent months. Nevertheless, as the company was making its FERC filing last June, organized demonstrators marched through Astoria, and property owners in the area of the proposed receiving terminal have retracted previous approvals to allow NorthernStar to use their land to survey for the LNG terminal.

“Most of our state and local permits will be filed in the next two to three months,” Coppedge said. “Those are mostly federal permits managed by state agencies.” Oregon’s energy department Facility Siting Council will no longer be an actionable agency, Coppedge said, having reviewed the 2005 federal Energy Policy Act (EPAct) and decided that FERC now legally preempts the state panel.

The siting council has only a coordination role, said Coppedge, adding that the Oregon Public Utility Commission has no role in the terminal review, but it would have to review any supply contracts with the LNG terminal by private-sector utilities that the PUC regulates. “The PUC’s role hasn’t changed; it doesn’t have a role in our facility itself.”

Although not as formidable as its role over offshore sites, the U.S. Coast Guard is involved in the Bradwood Landing project in that has to issue a “waterway suitability analysis” for the LNG tanker traffic in the Columbia River and a recommendation on the use of the river. “We have already drafted what is called a ‘WFA’ [“water feasibility analysis”] and the Coast Guard is taking it through a very intensive validation process,” Coppedge said. “When they are completed with that they will issue a recommendation to FERC.”

There is also a federal coastal consistency review process, which is completed by the state, he said. Finally, NorthernStar must make state filings for water and air quality control permits, which again are federally driven but carried out by the state.

Coppedge was asked but refused to give any details about prospects for sources of LNG (Alaska, Siberia, Australia, Indonesia, etc.) and potential customers in Oregon and Washington, which he acknowledges would have to be utilities and/or large industrial operations. “Our target is to have something put in place by the end of the year, or be well along in the negotiations by then,” he said. “We have been talking to prospective suppliers over the past several months, but we haven’t signed anything, and that is about all I can say because the different suppliers we are talking to are very strict on confidentiality.

“We’re talking to many suppliers right now, so the LNG could come from anywhere. Our business plan is to put gas [from the LNG terminal] in the pipeline and then the transporters of the gas would supply it to the end users.”

Coppedge said that everyone in the Northwest region will benefit from his firm’s proposed project because of what he expects will be downward pressure on pricing. “The largest users would be industrials and utilities,” he said, noting he is convinced the demand for the added gas supplies is present. “We know if we put it into the market at a really good price, we’ll sell the gas; that has been confirmed.”

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