The US LNG export player, Cheniere, has decided to make a project design change to its Stage 3 expansion project of the Corpus Christi liquefaction project located on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
According to a filing by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Cheniere revealed its decision to switch the planned two large-scale liquefaction trains for seven mid-scale trains.
The design was proposed in November last year, with Cheniere then saying it is eyeing development of a mid-scale liquefaction project .
In a company presentation in June, Cheniere said that the project evaluation started in early 2016, with 18 proposals from potential contractors having been reviewed.
A consortium consisting of KBR, Siemens, and Chart Industries has been tasked to develop the full FEED and EPC proposals by September this year.
The change would increase the planned output from 9 million tons per annum to 9.5 mtpa with electric instead of compressor engines to be used for the proposed compressor modifications.
Cheniere said it will provide further detail of the technology design change for the Stage 3 facilities in revised draft resource reports to be filed with the commission in the next two weeks.
During a conference call with the commission, Cheniere said that there would be no change in the Corpus Christi project footprint or pipeline route as a result of the proposed design changes.
Cheniere expects to file its application with FERC in the first quarter of 2018, and will also update both the free trade agreement (FTA) and non-FTA applications due to the increased throughput from 9 mtpa to 9.5 mtpa.
With the change, the project, that has progressed to over 70 percent completion mark, would have an aggregate nominal capacity of 23 mtpa. Cheniere said that the first two liquefaction trains under construction have are already fully contracted while the third train capacity is partially contracted.