The United States Department of Energy has issued an order authorizing Freeport LNG to export chilled fuel from its fourth train at the plant on Quintana Island near Freeport, Texas.
The authorization is for exports to nations with which the United States does not have a free trade agreement (FTA), the order reads.
In its initial application, Freeport LNG requested permission to export the volumes from the fourth liquefaction train for a period of 20 years.
In its filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Freeport LNG expects to start construction of the fourth LNG train by the end of 2018 and have in operational in 2022.
The fourth liquefaction train is being designed with a nominal production capacity of 5.1 million tons per annum, and in its filing to the DoE, Freeport LNG requested a permit to export up to 0.71 billion cubic feet per day from the facility.
The initial three liquefaction trains of the Freeport liquefaction project are currently under construction and are scheduled to commence operations sequentially between fourth quarter in 2018 and third quarter in 2019.
Each liquefaction train will have a capacity in excess of 5 mtpa.
About 13.4 mtpa of the production capacity from the first three liquefaction trains has been contracted under use-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreements with Osaka Gas, JERA, BP, Toshiba Corp. and SK E&S LNG.
LNG World News Staff