History
Development activities for the Oregon LNG Project, formerly known as Skipanon Natural Gas Facility, were started in early 2004 by initiating conversations with local leaders about the feasibility of building such a facility in the area.
After receiving favorable responses, the project team leased a 96-acre site from the Port of Astoria and initiated a lengthy local site re-zoning process. This process involved significant public input and participation and the project site was eventually re-zoned to allow for the building of an LNG facility.
The project management team along with Oregon LNG's funding partner acquired the project from Calpine Corporation in January of 2007 and continued the local, State and Federal permitting processes started in early-2005.
Following the near-completion of the permitting process in 2011 it became clear that the natural gas and LNG markets were changing rapidly as a result of the perfection of shale gas recovery techniques. While the US was facing a natural gas shortage when the Oregon LNG project was started in 2004, the US now faces a long-term natural gas glut. New technology has allowed oil and gas producers to access huge reserves of low-cost natural gas in shale formations and the LNG imports are no longer needed.
As a result, Oregon LNG initiated the evaluation of a bi-directional facility, which would allow for Oregon LNG to serve as a dual-purpose facility. During normal operation the proposed facility would produce LNG for export to Asia and during other times the facility would serve as a back-up source of natural gas for the regional natural gas grid. Such other times would include times of peak local and regional natural gas demands and times of outages on the Interstate Pipeline System that serves Oregon.