The Department of Energy today approved LNG exports to non-free-trade-agreement countries from the Jordan Cove terminal in Coos Bay, Ore. It is the seventh LNG export license granted by the Obama Administration to date. Via Reuters, the approval allows 0.8 billion cubic feet of LNG per day to be exported from Jordan Cove. Canadian officials last month granted Veresen — the Calgary-based company that will own and operate the Jordan Cove facility — permission to send natural gas from Canada to the U.S. Front-end engineering and design for the facility wrapped up last August, and commercial LNG production is set to begin in 2019.
Some observers see the latest approval as a response to LNG market uncertainty in Europe amid the crisis in the Ukraine. Veresen, however, indicated in an official announcement about the approval that its sights are set on markets in Asia and South America.
