Department of Energy Gives Green Light to Natural Gas Export Terminal

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The U.S. Department of Energy announced last week it will allow firms to export liquefied natural gas to international markets from the proposed Jordan Cove terminal on the southern coast of Oregon. The move brings natural gas producers in landlocked states like Wyoming closer to tapping into demand for the commodity overseas, proponents said.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued an order this week authorizing up to 1.8 billion cubic feet a day of liquefied natural gas to be shipped out of the terminal. The Jordan Cove terminal has yet to be constructed, due in part to significant regulatory issues over the past decade. But if completed, it would be the only liquefied natural gas port on the West Coast.

Energy companies convert natural gas into a liquid using cold temperatures and pressure. In its liquid state, the commodity can be transported across the globe in ocean vessels.

“Today’s issuance to Jordan Cove serves to further expand opportunities for U.S. LNG abroad, particularly in the growing markets of Asia, and encapsulates what the Trump Administration has been working hard on for the past three years – providing reliable, affordable and cleaner-burning natural gas to our allies around the world,” Brouillette said in a statement on Monday.

Wyoming Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, a longtime proponent of coal and LNG export terminals on the West Coast, welcomed the announcement.

“It’s great news that the Trump Administration has provided federal approval to the Jordan Cove project,” he said. “This project will create and sustain thousands of jobs in Wyoming.”

The Department of Energy’s authorization comes on the heels of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision in March to give the green light to the Jordan Cove export terminal and corresponding 229-mile pipeline, called the Pacific Connector Pipeline. Though the state of Oregon challenged the approval, federal regulators declined to reconsider the decision in May.

Despite the federal endorsement for the project, the project’s owner, Canadian energy company Pembina Pipeline Corp., has yet to obtain the required state permits and cannot begin construction until it has done so.

Supporters of the terminal have insisted landlocked Wyoming could see high returns if the export terminal on the West Coast comes to fruition. For years, natural gas operators have looked for ways to tap into international demand for natural gas.

But some energy analysts contend liquefied natural gas prices in Asia remain too low, and the market too volatile, to make investment in the commodity worthwhile.

Courtesy: www.billingsgazette.com