BANGOR (AP) – Quoddy Bay LNG has become the first company to file a formal application with federal regulators to operate a liquefied natural gas terminal in Maine.

Quoddy Bay, which wants to build its facility at the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s Pleasant Point Reservation in Washington County, submitted boxes of applications, reports and supporting documents to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday.

“The Quoddy Bay LNG Project has reached an important milestone and is significantly closer to providing the Northeast with environmentally clean natural gas,” Quoddy Bay LNG President Donald M. Smith said Friday in a statement.

FERC is expected to make a final decision on the case in 10 to 18 months, according to FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen.

After accepting the document, FERC will accept public comment and motions to intervene for approximately 20 days, Young-Allen said

It’s one of two proposed projects in Washington County. A second company, Downeast LNG, hopes to build a facility in Robbinston.

Currently, New England’s only LNG terminal is in Everett, Mass., but there are nine pending or proposed LNG terminal projects in New England, according to the Conservation Law Foundation.

Bob Godfrey, spokesman for the Save Passamaquoddy Bay, predicted that neither of the Washington County projects would become a reality.

“Neither project has any chance of actually succeeding. Both have insurmountable obstacles,” said Godfrey, whose group opposes the proposed LNG terminals.

Godfrey said he expects both proposals to fail the state’s permitting process and U.S. federal, Canadian and international environmental requirements.

Quoddy Bay Project Manager Brian Smith, son of President Donald M. Smith, disagrees.

“We’ve been through two full draft submittals and subsequent reviews with FERC and state agencies and individuals, and so far all of the comments and questions we’ve received have indicated that the project has a very good chance of being approved,” he said.