It's been a busy month for Cheniere Energy Incorporated, among the lead exporters of U.S.-sourced LNG.
The company signed a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with a division of China's ENN Natural Gas Company Ltd.
That followed a similar agreement reached with Norwegian energy major Equinor. Both agreements, Cheniere said, would support planned expansions to its Sabine Pass export terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
Cheniere has six trains running now with a combined capacity of 4.56 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in peak nameplate capacity. Plans for another train would boost that capacity to 5.32 Bcf/d.
Counting expansions to Sabine Pass, Industrial Info finds there are $27.5 billion worth of FIDs that are either upcoming or awaiting approval between now and 2024. The next closest is Qatar, with an expected $15 billion in potential FIDs by next year.
"We are off to a good start here in the U.S. with two projects already obtaining FID approval, namely Sempra's Port Arthur rated at 6.6 million tonnes per annum and Venture Global's Plaquemines Phase II rated at 13.5 million tonnes per annum," said Gordon Gorrie, IIR's vice president of oil and gas research.
Federal data show 22 vessels laden with LNG left U.S. export terminals during the seven-day period ending June 21, carrying a combined 82 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas in the liquid form. That compares to just 39.1 Bcf during the comparable week in 2019, to discount both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
On Ukraine, the U.S. has helped fill the void left in Europe by sanctions targeting Russia oil and natural gas, robbing the Kremlin of revenue it needs to fill its war chest.
The momentum for LNG is apparent in capital flows. FIDs in the U.S. totaled $18.2 billion last year and Industrial Info data show nothing moving in investments during 2021.
Over the short-term horizon, LNG export capacity expands at an incremental pace. From 2022 to 2023, federal data show an expected 14% increase in liquefaction capacity to 12.1 Bcf/d, but the expansion slows to 5% between now and 2024, when capacity reaches 12.7 Bcf/d.
But the capital flows suggest the pace will pick up. Several more trains are expected to come online from the Calcasieu Pass terminal by September. Beyond that, a three-train facility at Golden Pass in Texas should be online by 2025, as will both phases of the Plaquemines terminal in Louisiana. Two trains, meanwhile, are already under construction at Port Arthur, where construction should be completed by 2027.
