NorthernStar suspends Bradwood Landing LNG terminal in Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. - NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. said on May 4 that it is suspending efforts to develop a liquefied natural gas import terminal at
Bradwood Landing on the Columbia River, 25 miles east of Astoria.
The announcement ends a six-year effort that consumed as much as $100
million of investors' capital and countless hours of regulatory work while sparking a firestorm of public opposition from property owners and environmentalists.
The Houston-based energy development company sent out a one-page news release on May 4 quoting NorthernStar President Paul Soanes saying extended delays in state and federal permitting and the difficult investment environment "have forced us to suspend development."
The company characterized its move as a "suspension" of the project, not a termination.
Mike Carrier, natural resources policy director for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, said the company told him on May 4 that another developer could conceivably resurrect the project. But Carrier said the company told him its financial backer, a private equity fund that has put $100 million into the company's LNG proposals in Oregon and California, was pulling the plug.
NorthernStar began development work nearly six years ago at an abandoned mill site on the lower Columbia River. At the time, gas prices were high and importing the commodity to the United States from abroad seemed like a lucrative opportunity.
Bradwood's suspension also has implications for a controversial 200-mile pipeline that Northwest Natural Gas Co. and TransCanada Corp. were planning to build to connect the LNG terminal with an interstate pipeline in central Oregon near Maupin.

NorthernStar says construction of Oregon LNG terminal to begin

BRADWOOD, Ore. - NorthernStar Natural Gas says it is nearing the end of the long federal and state approval process for its liquefied natural gas terminal on the Columbia River and could begin construction by the end of this year.
The Houston company said it has begun consulting with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the impacts the Bradwood, Ore., terminal would pose to endangered species. NMFS is expected to rule in a Biological Opinion expected between March and May whether the risks are acceptable.
In a statement, NorthernStar president Paul Soanes called it "a major milestone" that "puts Bradwood Landing on track to complete its permitting
by next summer, allowing construction to begin later in 2010."
NorthernStar plans to bring LNG tankers 38 miles up the Columbia, where they would unload superchilled gas into storage tanks. The gas would be warmed and pumped to market through at least one pipeline that would cross the Columbia River and connect with the Williams pipeline just north of Kelso.
Should federal regulators determine the project meets the requirements of
the Endangered Species Act, NorthernStar will still have to get approvals
from Washington and Oregon under the clean air, clean water and Coastal Zone Management acts. FERC's decision to approve the project also faces an appeal from various environmental groups and state and federal agencies in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.