Cheniere Energy issued export license for Corpus Christi LNG facility

Cheniere Energy will build two new liquefaction trains as part of Stage 3

Cheniere Energy Inc. has been awarded a 20-year license to export approximately 1.41 Bcf/d of natural gas from its Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC to countries that have a free trade agreement with the U.S.

Artist impression of the proposed Corpus Christi Liquefaction project. Photo: Cheniere Energy.

As reported by SNL, Corpus Christi Liquefaction initiated the FERC prefiling process for its Stage 3 project, which would add two gas liquefaction trains and a fourth LNG storage tank to the three-train liquefaction facility in San Patricio County, Texas, approved by FERC in December 2014.

The additional two trains would each be capable of processing about 700 MMcf/d of gas and have an average liquefaction capacity of about 5 million tonnes annually.

The combined 10 million tonnes of capacity would be in addition to the total liquefaction capacity of the original project of about 15 million tonnes/year.

To get gas to the Stage 3 project, Cheniere Corpus Christi Pipeline would build the Stage 3 line, a 22-mile, 42-inch gas pipeline that would run parallel to the 48-inch pipeline approved earlier by FERC.

Corpus Christi LNG’s first three trains received authorization to export up to 2.1 Bcf/d of gas to non-FTA countries in May.

SNL reported that according to a July presentation, Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC has sold 8.4 million of the 10.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG it expects to sell as long-term contracts, and intends to reserve the remaining capacity for the short-term market, including volumes sold to Cheniere Marketing.