Australian Ambre Energy is striving to be the first company to export coal through the northwest to Asia through the development of its Morrow Pacific project.

The project includes an enclosed terminal at Port of Morrow and a new Colombia River dock. It was first applied for last month through the Oregon Department of State Lands.

The April 1 decision deadline was pushed back to September 1 after Ambre concluded that their permit was likely to be declined.

In February, DSL requested more information from Ambre regarding the project’s impacts on Columbia River fisheries, water quality, and the overall need for the shipments.

Ambre initially refused, but relented this week after DSL said it was likely to deny the permit without the information.

This is the second delay in the 13 months since the permit was filed.

The project involves railing coal from Montana or Wyoming to the Port of Morrow and then barging the coal to the port of St Helens for export.

Ambre’s Decker mine is 1039 miles from the Port of Morrow.

Stage 1 of the project will ship 3.5 million metric tons per year and cost $152 million, while Stage 2 will take capacity to 8 million metric tons per year for an additional investment of $94 million.

Ambre said the $242 million project would provide construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs.