Oregon

While the Columbia River-based Oregon LNG project to import/export shale gas supplies from British Columbia (BC) has quietly filed for a permit from the National Energy Board (NEB) in Canada, it is still searching for the right mix of partner/customers that can give the $6 billion venture a realistic chance of being completed before 2020.

A second U.S. export terminal project on the Pacific Coast is reaching north to Canada for shale production to turn into Asia-bound tanker cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Skeptics think Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Asia face some significant hurdles, and two similar projects in Oregon don’t have a completely uncluttered path to Far East markets either, even if they both manage to get FERC and other federal government approvals.

In the fourth paragraph of a story published Sept. 23, 2013 “U.S. West Coast LNG Seen Leading Canadian Terminal Projects” (seeDaily GPI,Sept. 23), the status of the two LNG plants in Oregon was incorrectly stated. Neither of the plants has received authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy for exports to non-FTA (free trade agreement) countries. That paragraph should read: As likely candidates to beat the BC pack of terminal and pipeline schemes Prentice pointed to two Oregon projects: Jordan Cove and Oregon LNG. Both have received authorization for exports to the limited number of countries that have a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. They are among at least 13 U.S. projects still seeking export authorization to non-FTA countries.NGIregrets the error.

A lot of under-used natural gas pipeline capacity from supply sources on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border is a key competitive advantage for two proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects in Oregon, according to backers of the Jordan Cove and Oregon LNG projects.

The first Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) could have to settle for boarding tankers at a new port on the northern Pacific Coast of the United States, a champion of British Columbia projects conceded Wednesday.

Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities asked Oregon regulators last Thursday for a better-than 10% hike in its retail residential natural gas utility rates, reversing a trend in recent years in which retail gas utility rates in the state had been plummeting (seeDaily GPI,Nov. 1, 2011).

Aided by a new state law, NW Natural is accelerating its initiative to expand the use and fueling infrastructure for natural gas vehicles (NGV), and CEO Gregg Kantor, speaking on a 2Q2013 earnings conference call Wednesday, said that there is a statewide interest in developing natural gas as a transportation fuel.

Senate chairman of Committee of Energy and Natural Resources, Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, last week rejected the findings of a study published last year for the Department of Energy (DOE) that favors liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and called for a do-over.