Cheniere Energy Inc. said Monday it has completed commissioning the sixth train at its Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Louisiana, boosting the facility’s production capacity to 30 million metric tons/year (mmty).
CEO Jack Fusco said the 5 mmty liquefaction train was completed ahead of schedule and on budget five months after feed gas was introduced. The project was sanctioned in June 2019 and was initially expected to come online by 2023.
“With nine total trains across both the Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi projects, the Cheniere liquefaction platform is the second largest in the world, reliably providing our global customer base with clean, secure and affordable energy,” Fusco said.
Engineering firm Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals Inc. has turned over care and control of the sixth train to Cheniere. Now that it’s complete and has entered commercial service, Cheniere said LNG sales from the expansion would be included in its financial results going forward.
One of the largest buyers of natural gas in the country and the nation’s largest LNG exporter, Cheniere is also aiming to sanction an expansion project at its Corpus Christi terminal in South Texas this year.
Stage three at Corpus Christi would add seven midscale liquefaction trains with maximum LNG production capacity of 11.45 mmty. Three liquefaction trains with a 15 mmty capacity are currently operating at the terminal.
Cheniere said it finished the sixth train at Sabine Pass on Friday, the same day Venture Global LNG Inc. requested authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to load its first LNG export cargo from its Calcasieu Pass terminal in Louisiana this week.
Once Calcasieu Pass and a sixth train at Sabine Pass come online, the Energy Information Administration expects the United States to have the world’s largest LNG export capacity. At that point, peak U.S. LNG production would hit 13.9 Bcf/d, surpassing both Australia (11.4 Bcf/d) and Qatar (10.3 Bcf/d), which are currently the world’s top two exporters.
