Jon Chesto: Is Hess being left out in the cold in the LNG race?

In most races, those who take an early lead can expect to be in contention to win at the end. So executives at Hess Corp. must be wondering what happened to their frontrunner position in the race to open a new liquefied natural gas terminal in the region.

Hess, along with development partner Poten & Partners, showed up more than five years ago with plans to build an LNG import terminal at an old oil tank farm in Fall River. The Weaver's Cove Energy project was among the first in a wave of LNG proposals as developers looked to capitalize on a surge in natural-gas prices and demand.