The US Department of Energy has issued two long-term orders authorizing more liquefied natural gas shipments from the existing liquefaction and export facilities owned by Cheniere Energy at Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas.
The two DoE orders allow Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi more feed gas to liquefy and export. Sabine Pass started operations in February 2016.
The Cheniere plants can now have the additional flexibility to export the equivalent of 0.72 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas as LNG to any country with which the US does not have a free trade agreement, including all of Europe.
When US LNG export plants were being developed for the first time in the lower 48 states the DoE was tasked with making sure there were export limits that protected US domestic natural gas needs as well.
“While US exporters are already exporting at or near their maximum capacity, with the issuances, every operating US LNG export project has approval from DoE to export its full capacity to any country where not prohibited by US law or policy,” said the DoE.
Top exporter
The statement noted that the US was now the top global exporter of LNG and exports are set to grow an additional 20 percent beyond current levels by the end of 2022 as additional capacity comes on stream.
In January 2022, the US supplied more than half of the LNG import needs of Europe.
“With the expected rise in LNG exports, the DoE is particularly focused on driving down methane emissions in the oil and gas sector both domestically and abroad,” added the statement.
It declared that US LNG remained an important component in global energy security.
“The DoE remains committed to finding ways to help our allies and trading partners with the energy supplies they need,” said the statement.
Cheniere announced in early February 2022 the completion of Train 6 at Sabine Pass in Cameron Parish in Louisiana, formally taking nameplate capacity to 27 million tonnes per annum.
The Corpus Christy facility has nameplate capacity of 13.5 MTPA from three Trains.
Cheniere recently initiated a lump sum, turnkey, engineering, procurement and construction contract with US LNG and energy engineering firm Bechtel Inc. for the Corpus Christi LNG plant expansion.
Bechtel has started early engineering, procurement and other site work for the Corpus Christi expansion, known by Cheniere as the Stage III Project.
The expansion will add up to seven mid-scale Trains, each with an expected liquefaction capacity of around 1.49 MTPA with a total production capacity of more than 10 MTPA.
