ROBBINSTON (AP) – A New York-based investment company is backing a new proposal for a liquefied natural gas facility in Washington County, creating competition with an Oklahoma company that wants to build an LNG facility at Pleasant Point.

Downeast LNG on Monday proposed to build the $400 million complex off Passamaquoddy Bay. Downeast LNG purchased a four-year option on a 30-acre site at Mill Cove.

The company’s project’s financial backer is Kestrel Energy Partners LLC, an oil and gas private equity investment firm in New York.

The proposal is not connected to Quoddy Bay LLC, the Oklahoma group that hopes to build a $200 million facility on Passamaquoddy tribal land at Pleasant Point.

The Robbinston plan would consist of an LNG storage tank, processing equipment, a new pier and several small support buildings.

The proposal differs from the Quoddy Bay LNG proposal that forgoes storage tanks in favor of directly offloading the gas into a pipeline. It is a slower process, and tankers would be tied up 365 days a year at a half-mile pier at Pleasant Point.

The advantage of having storage tanks is that the natural gas could be offloaded quickly. That avoids having the ships tied up for extended periods, and it’s the preferred method of natural gas suppliers, said Dean Girdis, Downeast LNG’s president.

The Passamaquoddy tribe voted in favor of entering into negotiations last August for an LNG terminal on a 42-acre site that had been transferred to the tribe by the town of Perry.

Perry voters ultimately rejected the proposal.

The Passamaquoddies regrouped and proposed a tribal site called Split Rock that was too small to accommodate large tanks. Quoddy Bay LLC then came up with an alternative proposal utilizing only 10 acres of land.

Quoddy Bay LLC and Passamaquoddy officials have reached a land lease agreement that was signed off on by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The next step is for the company to present its proposal for regulatory approvals.

Opponents have asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs to look into the lease agreement between the tribe and Qyoddy Bay.

Lynne Williams focused among other things on the tribe’s waiver of property taxes for the private developer, buffer zones surrounding LNG tankers, and language that opens the door to LNG storage tanks being built in the future.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs spokeswoman said the matter may be appealed through the Interior Board of Indian Appeals or through the courts.