Australian coal-seam-gas-to-LNG project developer, LNG Ltd, said it was planning a US production and export venture near Lake Charles Harbour in Louisiana.
It said US subsidiary Magnolia LNG filed an application with the US Department of Energy to export up to 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG to countries that have free trade agreements with the US.
LNG Ltd. is developer of the Fisherman's landing CSG-to-LNG project near the port of Gladstone and has a PetroChina unit as one of its collaborators.
Magnolia LNG has executed an exclusive site access agreement with the Port of Lake Charles on which it is proposed to develop the liquefaction facility "with the potential to expand to 8 MTPA at a future date.
BG Group of the UK is also involved in a separate US LNG export project in the same area. This involves transforming the existing Lake Charles LNG import terminal into a liquefaction plant.
LNG Ltd. said its venture was on a site "with direct access to a number of existing underutilised gas pipelines, which directly access the highly liquid US gas market."
Its Magnolia LNG affiliate has commenced discussions with several potential partners on a draft tolling agreement.
Under such a formula, Magnolia would build, own and operate the facility and will receive a fixed monthly capacity fee and operating and maintenance fee, plus a process fee for LNG loaded onto ships.
"Magnolia LNG will materially benefit from the recently completed front-end engineering design for the first LNG train (1.9 MTPA) of the company's 100-percent owned 3.8 MTPA LNG project in Gladstone, Queensland," it said.
