DOE approves LNG exports from Mississippi terminal

The US Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy Office authorized exports of domestically produced LNG from Gulf LNG Liquefaction Co. LLC’s proposed terminal near Pascagoula, Miss. 

The July 31 order gives Gulf LNG authority to export as much as 1.53 bcfd of natural gas as LNG from the proposed project to countries not having a free trade agreement with the US requiring national treatment for trade in gas, and with which trade is not prohibited by US law or policy.

“The US is in another year of record-setting natural gas production,” said Asst. Sec. for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg. “I am pleased that [DOE] is doing its part to bring about an efficient regulatory system that allows additional US energy to find its way into the global market.”

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorized Gulf LNG to site, construct, and operate the project on July 16, DOE noted.

It said that including this announcement, it has approved 34.52 bcfd of exports in the form of LNG and compressed natural gas to non-free trade agreement countries. Of this approved amount, 14 bcfd is in various stages of operation and construction, with four export projects currently operating, and two more expected to come online later this year, it said.

Gulf LNG said the proposed project will include installation of gas pretreatment, liquefaction, and export facilities at the terminal with a total capacity of as much as 11.5 million tonnes/year. It said these facilities would allow the terminal to liquefy gas delivered by pipeline, store the LNG in the terminal’s existing storage tanks, and load it into vessels via the terminal’s existing marine jetty.

The terminal would retain its current capability to receive, store, regasify, and deliver gas into the interstate pipeline system as originally constructed, thereby making the Gulf LNG Terminal bidirectional, Gulf LNG said.

Gulf LNG Holdings Group LLC is owned 50% by Southern Gulf LNG Co. LLC, an indirect subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Inc. and operator of the Gulf LNG Terminal, and 30% by Thunderbird LNG LLC. Thunderbird is partially owned and controlled by GSO Capital Partners, a Blackstone Group LP subsidiary. The remaining 20% of Gulf LNG is owned nearly equally by subsidiaries of Arc Logistics Partners LP and Lightfoot Capital Partners LP.