Cheniere announces two new LNG project developments

Cheniere Energy Inc. has announced two LNG project developments. If completed, the LNG projects are expected to add up to approximately 19 million tpy of incremental LNG production capacity, bringing Cheniere's aggregate nominal LNG production capacity to approximately 60 million tpy by 2025.

Cheniere is developing approximately 9 million tpy of incremental LNG production capacity through the addition of two liquefaction trains adjacent to the existing site of the Corpus Christi liquefaction project. Each of these trains has an expected nominal LNG production capacity of approximately 4.5 million tpy, which would increase the expected aggregate nominal LNG production capacity at the liquefaction project to approximately 22.5 million tpy.

Cheniere initiated the regulatory process in June 2015 by filing the National Environmental Policy Act pre-filing request with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the free trade agreement (FTA) and non-FTA approval requests with the US Department of Energy (DOE). Regulatory approvals would be expected in 2017.  

The company has also agreed in principle to partner with Parallax Enterprises LLC to develop up to 10 million tpy of LNG production capacity through Parallax's two mid-scale projects, Live Oak LNG and Louisiana LNG. Live Oak is located on the Calcasieu Ship Channel in southwestern Louisiana, and Louisiana LNG is located on the Mississippi River approximately 40 miles from New Orleans. Both projects are expected to have two liquefaction trains designed for LNG production capacity of approximately 2.5 million tpy each, utilising liquefaction process technology and modular equipment developed by Chart Industries Inc. The facilities are being engineered by Bechtel Oil, Gas, & Chemicals Inc.

Charif Souki, Cheniere's Chairman and CEO, said: "Our latest LNG development projects include two additional liquefaction trains adjacent to our Corpus Christi liquefaction site and four mid-scale liquefaction trains to be developed at two sites located in Louisiana. This next phase of growth would bring our expected aggregate nominal LNG production capacity to approximately 60 million tpy by 2025 […] We expect that these liquefaction trains could be funded from internally generated cash flows, which would allow us to continue to be one of the lowest cost suppliers of LNG in the market and give us more flexibility in terms of contracting and selling volumes on a more tailored basis to meet the individual needs of global LNG buyers.

"We continue to market long-term contracts for Train 3 at Corpus Christi and Train 6 at Sabine Pass, and plan to finalise the sale of approximately 3 million tpy of capacity under 20-year agreements before we make a positive final investment decision (FID) on each train, reaching a total of approximately 32 million tpy of LNG under long-term third-party contracts out of a total of 40.5 million tpy by 2020. We think we can continue to grow this platform at 10% per year until 2025, and reach approximately 60 million tpy of expected total nominal LNG production capacity with our new projects while remaining a low cost global LNG supplier."

Cheniere anticipates both project developments could be under construction as early as 2017, subject to receiving all required regulatory approvals and reaching FID. The projects would be targeted to begin production as early as 2021, with all approximately 19 million tpy targeted to be in production by 2025.

Edited from press release by Callum O'Reilly

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquefaction/11062015/cheniere-announces-two-new-lng-project-developments-927/