US Department of Energy authorises additional LNG exports from Lake Charles
Published by Joseph Green,
Editor
LNG Industry,
The US Department of Energy has announced the approval of two long-term applications to export additional LNG from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project in Lake Charles, LA. Additional exports in the amount of 0.33 billion ft3 per day of natural gas are approved from Lake Charles’s proposed liquefaction facility.
The two non-additive authorisations for the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project have been issued to Lake Charles Exports, LLC and Lake Charles LNG Export Company (the Lake Charles Companies) authorising additional exports of domestically produced LNG from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project to any country in the world not prohibited by US law or policy. The Energy Department previously authorised the Lake Charles Companies to export LNG up to the equivalent of 2 billion ft3 per day of natural gas to any country in the world not prohibited by U.S. law or policy from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project. Now, with further engineering of the planned project, additional design capacity has been realised and the Energy Department is authorising an additional 0.33 billion ft3 per day of exports from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project.
According to the Lake Charles Companies, the construction of Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project will provide thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs as well.
Gains in US natural gas production are expected to continue, with the US Energy Information Administration’s latest Short Term Energy Outlook projecting an average dry natural gas production rate of 73.3 billion ft3 per day in 2017, the second highest on record. These production gains have led to increasing export opportunities for the US, which is transitioning to become a net exporter of natural gas. The Department of Energy has now authorised a total of 21.33 billion ft3 per day of natural gas exports to any country in the world from planned facilities in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project would further position the US to become a predominant LNG supplier to the rest of the world.
Federal law requires the Energy Department to conduct a public interest review for applications seeking unrestricted export destinations such as the ones submitted by the Lake Charles Companies. The Energy Department conducted an extensive review of the Lake Charles applications. Among other factors, the Department considered the economic, energy security, and environmental impacts, including macroeconomic studies that showed positive benefits to the US economy in scenarios with LNG exports up to 28 billion ft3 per day. The Department determined that increased exports from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project, jointly owned by the Texas-based Energy Transfer and the Anglo-Dutch based Royal Dutch Shell, for a period of 20 years, was not inconsistent with the public interest.
Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/30062017/us-department-of-energy-authorises-additional-lng-exports-from-lake-charles/
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