LNG

Sempra’s Port Arthur Pipeline Louisiana Connector project is now complete and in-service, offering additional gas takeaway capacity for US Gulf Coast LNG export terminals along the US Gulf Coast. Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 is under construction and, when complete, will be able to process and ship up to 13 mtpa of LNG, according to project developers.

US LNG developers have secured 40 mtpa of LNG offtake from planned export projects in 2025, their strongest commercial year since 2022. Port Arthur LNG Phase 2 led the pack with 1.4 Bcf/d contracts, and Asian and European buyers keep coming for more amid Qatar’s export suspension.

Baker Hughes has secured a contract from Bechtel Energy to supply liquefaction equipment for Phase 2 of Sempra’s Port Arthur LNG project in Jefferson County, Texas. The new equipment supports a nameplate capacity of 13 mtpa.

Sempra Infrastructure has resumed construction on the plant’s 13 mtpa Phase 1 foundations, after works were halted a fortnight ago due to a scaffolding collapse. Still, targeted FID on Porth Arthur LNG Phase 2 in the third quarter of 2025 remains in place.

The Port Arthur liquefied natural gas export project in Texas proposed by Sempra Energy has formally filed with regulators for authorization for an expansion at the plant which will have the largest liquefaction Trains of any so far constructed in the US.

Sempra Energy, the California company operating the Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana, has signed a fixed-price contract with US engineer Bechtel to construct its second Gulf Coast plant at Port Arthur in Texas to be backed by a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, the largest oil producing company.

Sempra Energy, the California-based utility and owner of the Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana and with two other export facilities under development, reported full-year earnings of $2.1 billion and progress on all three ventures.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company that recently listed its shares and with plans to be a supplier and trader of liquefied natural gas, has issued an expression of interest to charter up to 12 LNG carriers.

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.

Sempra Energy said that recent agreements signed supported the goal of the California-based utility and project developer to become one of the largest US exporters of LNG with targeted volumes of 45 million tonnes per annum.