Cheniere Energy Inc. plans to add 19 million tonnes/year of incremental production capacity to two LNG projects, bringing the company’s aggregate nominal production capacity to 60 million tpy by 2025.
The company is developing 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 (CCL) project. Expected nominal production capacity of each of these trains is 4.5 million tpy, which would increase the expected aggregate nominal production capacity to 22.5 million tpy.
Cheniere initiated the regulatory process this month by filing the National Environmental Policy Act prefiling request with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Federal Transit Administration, and non-FTA approval requests with the US Department of Energy. Regulatory approvals would be expected in 2017. A final investment decision (FID) for CCL was reached last month (OGJ Online, May 14, 2015).
The company also has agreed in principle to partner with Parallax Enterprises LLC to develop as much as 10 million tpy of LNG production capacity through Parallax’s two midscale projects, Live Oak LNG on the Calcasieu Ship Channel in southwestern Louisiana (OGJ Online, Feb. 3, 2015) and Louisiana LNG on the Mississippi River 40 miles from New Orleans (OGJ Online, Oct. 8, 2014).
Both projects are expected to have two liquefaction trains designed for production capacity of 2.5 million tpy each, utilizing liquefaction process technology and modular equipment developed by Chart Industries Inc. The facilities are being engineered by Bechtel Oil, Gas & Chemicals Inc.
Cheniere says it anticipates both project developments could be under construction as early as 2017, subject to receiving all required regulatory approvals and reaching a FID. The projects would be targeted to begin production as early as 2021, with all 19 million tpy targeted to be in production by 2025.
“We continue to market long-term contracts for Train 3 at Corpus Christi and Train 6 at Sabine Pass, and plan to finalize the sale of approximately 3 [million tpy] of capacity under 20-year agreements before we make a positive [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,” said Charif Souki, Cheniere chairman and chief executive officer.