Two months after saying negotiations with a Texas company
that wants to build a propane and butane export terminal at the port have gone poorly,
Port of Longview officials are saying that progress has been made.
On Sept. 9, port CEO Geir-Eilif Kalhagen told port
commissioners that negotiations with Haven Energy progressed significantly last
week. The port has closed “a lot of the gaps” in negotiations with Haven for
lease of port property and dock use, Kalhagen said.
It was a marked contrast from Kalhagen’s July 8 comments to
the port board, when he said he was disappointed with the talks so far with
Haven, a subsidiary of Houston-based natural gas-related infrastructure company
Sage Midstream. Kalhagen said at the time that Haven didn’t understand
Washington environmental regulations or pricing structures.
Haven is proposing an export facility to move propane and
butane, currently being flared in the Midwest, to energy markets around the
Pacific Rim. The company is considering building a unit train-accessible rail
unloading facility, storage tanks and ship loading area at the port with the
capability to load marine vessels with up to an about capacity of 550,000
barrels.
The company’s proposal calls for the cargo to be railed to
the port from the North Dakota and South Dakota, then refrigerated and stored
on site at Longview before being loaded to vessels for export to Hawaii, Mexico
and Asia.
In April, the company entered into a one-year option
agreement with the port to evaluate the project.
