Sempra Energy, the California-based utility and operator of the Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana, has filed a request to expand its Port Arthur project in Texas where the liquefaction Trains will be the largest in the US.
The Sempra processing Trains at Port Arthur would be the largest built in the US, each with capacity of 6.73 million tonnes per annum, though smaller than the world’s largest Trains of 7.8 MTPA of capacity operating at the Ras Laffan plant in Qatar.
Sempra has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to initiate a pre-filing environmental review to its original plan for two Trains, each with 7.73 MTPA of output, by adding two more Trains of the same capacity at the facility in Jefferson County in Texas.
The addition of Train 3 and Train 4 would double the facility’s output from the current 13.46 MTPA to a total of almost 27 MTPA.
The company plans to build the plant on a site along the west side of the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel, about five miles south of the city of Port Arthur.
The expansion will utilize the same liquefaction Train design as that put forward for the initial plant so that much of the initial engineering design is already complete.
Bechtel designed the original two-Train plant and has been retained as the project engineer.
Sempra said that it proposes to file its formal application for the expansion in January 2020.
“In that application, Sempra will request that the Commission issues authorization for the siting, construction, and operation of the expansion project by no later than January 2021,” the company explained.
“Sempra anticipates requesting authorization to begin construction in March 2022,” it added in its FERC request.
Sempra first received its environmental impact statement from regulators in October 2018 for the Port Arthur project.
The previous FERC review addressed the potential environmental effects of the construction and operation of the various proposed facilities. as well as the Texas Connector and Louisiana Connector pipelines.
The original filing covered two liquefaction Trains, three LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of 160,000 cubic metres, a new marine terminal with two LNG vessel berths, an area for support vessels, an LNG transfer system and a truck-loading area.
