Veresen files FERC application for Jordan Cove

Michael Hinrichs, spokesperson for Jordan Cove, said changes to the project are what’s giving the company confidence that the application will be accepted this go around. Those changes include the elimination of a 420-megawatt power plant and 50 adjustments to the pipeline’s route.

“I think first and foremost the optimization of the project itself comes with a lot of confidence,” Hinrichs said.

A sign of that confidence was choosing a group to engineer and construct the facility.

In July, Veresen, which is the company backing the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and its corresponding 235-mile-long pipeline, signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement with KBJ, comprised of Kiewit Energy Group Inc., Black and Veatch Construction Inc., and JGC US projects LLC.

The project’s total cost has increased by $3 billion putting the price tag at $10 billion.

Veresen’s CEO Dan Althoff called submitting the application to FERC a ‘major milestone’ for the project.

“Our significant efforts to optimize the design to minimize its environmental footprint and accommodate landowner requests, as well as the support of our world-class LNG buyers, should result in the receipt of the positive regulatory decisions required to build Jordan Cove,” Althoff said in a prepared statement.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. bought Calgary-based Veresen in May in a $9.7 billion deal, including debt.

That deal had supporters expressing optimism that the deal further solidified the feasibility for the only active proposal for a U.S. West Coast LNG export facility.

“Now we have commercial confidence that the project is certainly economically viable,” Hinrichs said.

The new application decreased the number of private properties in the pipeline’s pat h— from 254 to 227.

Hinrichs said 40 percent of property owners in the path of the pipeline have signed voluntary easement agreements.

Additions to FERC’s board could also work in the energy project’s favor.

Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson joined the five-member board after being confirmed by the Senate in August, allowing the commission to have its first quorum since February.

On Tuesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously voted to confirm President Trump’s FERC nominees, according to the Washington Examiner. Their confirmation would restore FERC to its full five-members.

In April, The Washington Post reported that Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, told the Institute of International Finance that the administration was in favor of the Jordan Cove project.

“The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to permit an LNG export facility in the Northwest,” Cohn said, and later “The one place we’re going to permit in the Northwest, it’s been turned down twice already.”

At the end of last year, FERC announced it would not consider a re-hearing of its March 11 decision to deny permission to build the pipeline and export terminal.

In the letter, FERC cited a lack of public benefits compared to the project’s adverse impacts.

“The Jordan Cove LNG project is the only export terminal FERC has ever rejected,” Susan Jane Brown with the Western Environmental Law Center said in a prepared statement. “With FERC’s reputation as a rubber-stamp agency, this speaks volumes about how deeply flawed the Jordan Cove LNG and Pacific Connector Pipeline proposal truly is. Additionally, forcing Oregonians to assume risk to their clean water and air so a Calgary-based company can export fracked gas overseas is a terrible deal for America.”

And then there’s the Port of Coos Bay’s proposed dredging project which Jordan Cove is helping fund.

“From our perspective any type of maintenance or upgrade to the port would certainly help Jordan Cove,” Hinrichs said.

According to a news release from Veresen, the project would generate $60 million in property taxes and would create 200 permanent jobs.

“We spent a considerable amount of money and time making sure that we have all the data that we think agencies will need,” Hinrichs said.

The spokesman said another assurance — beyond an administration friendly to oil and gas interests, new FERC members chosen by that administration, Veresen’s acquisition by a larger company and the Port’s plan to embark on a $300 million channel modification projec t— is the increase in those vocalizing support for the project at Jordan Cove’s presentations.

“Second is the amount of support that we’re seeing at the local, state and national level,” Hinrichs said, “I think it’s always a confidence booster when we’re doing presentation and we see more people vocalizing support for the project.”

Veresen is requesting that FERC issue an Environmental Impact Statement and ruling on the permit by the end of 2018.