Cheniere to Move Forward with Texas Corpus Stage 3 LNG Plant Expansion
(Reuters) — U.S. liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy Inc. on Wednesday said its Board of Directors had decided to go forward with the expansion of the Corpus Christi export plant in Texas and told Bechtel Energy to continue with its construction.
The so-called Stage 3 expansion at Corpus was the second U.S. LNG export plant to reach a final investment decision (FID) this year as demand for natural gas soars, with several countries seeking to wean themselves off Russian energy after Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Venture Global LNG in May made an FID to build its Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana.
Both plants — Corpus Stage 3 and Plaquemines — were already under early construction when the companies made FIDs.
"Reaching FID on Corpus Christi Stage 3 represents an important milestone for Cheniere as we move forward on this significant growth project," Cheniere CEO Jack Fusco said in a statement.
Fusco said Stage 3 would "provide much-needed volumes to the global LNG market by the end of 2025 ... and reflects the call for investment in natural gas infrastructure around the world to support environmental priorities and long-term energy security."
Stage 3 would add up to seven mid-scale liquefaction trains that would produce around 10.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG, equivalent to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.
In addition to the Stage 3 FID, Cheniere also said a unit of U.S. oil company Chevron Corp. agreed to buy 2.0 MTPA of LNG from a couple of Cheniere subsidiaries.
That is just the latest set of LNG supply or gas purchase agreements Cheniere has signed this year. Earlier agreements included deals with units of Norway's Equinor ASA, South Korea's POSCO Holdings Inc., Canada's ARC Resources Ltd. and the U.S.' EOG Resources Inc.
To cover some of the cost of building Stage 3, Cheniere said one of its units closed on a roughly $4 billion Senior Secured Term Loan due 2029 and a $1.5 billion Working Capital Facility due 2027.
Cheniere said it will cover the remaining costs of the project, which includes a gas pipeline.
Cheniere is already the biggest buyer of gas in the United States and the biggest U.S. exporter of LNG with the capacity to produce about 45 MTPA of LNG at the 30-MTPA Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana and 15 MTPA in Corpus.
Separately, a unit of U.K. chemical company INEOS Group Ltd. agreed to buy 1.4 MTPA of LNG for 20 years from a unit of California energy company Sempra Energy, which should move Sempra and its partners a step closer to making an FID on the proposed Port Arthur LNG export plant in Texas or the Cameron Phase 2 project in Louisiana.
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