LNG Journal editor
Lake Charles LNG, the export project being pursued by pipeline and midstream company Energy Transfer and Royal Dutch Shell, has filed with regulators for an extension to mid-December 2025 for the venture to be completed and a final decision to go-ahead is expected by year-end.
The previous order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had authorized the deadline of 16th December 2020 to place the facilities into service.
Investment decision
The Lake Charles project request also states that a final investment decision could occur as early as the end of 2020.
Energy Transfer and Shell plan to move towards a potential FID while starting to seek engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. A tender for expressions of interest was issued in May 2019.
The long-standing Lake Charles project had received a draft environmental impact statement from the FERC in September 2015 for a liquefaction plant to produce 16.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG.
Shell gained its stake in the Lake Charles facility’s reserved capacity from its takeover in 2015 of BG Group of the UK.
The export project will include the construction of three liquefaction Trains and will use the existing LNG storage and marine berthing facilities owned by Equity Transfer since its takeover of Southern Union Co. in 2013 for more than $5 billion.
The proposed Lake Charles liquefaction plant was first awarded a permit by the Department of Energy in August 2013 to ship cargoes to countries without a US Free Trade Agreement. Now the volumes for that permit have been increased.
Before the shale-gas boom Lake Charles was one of the centres of US LNG imports, with BG bringing in cargoes from nations such as Trinidad and Equatorial Guinea.
BG and Energy Transfer had previously scheduled a commercial start-up for the plant as an export venture in 2019.
The 440-acre site is located close to the Henry Hub with access to many of the largest natural gas production areas in the US through Energy Transfer’s existing and new pipelines like the Trunkline Gas System.
