Argent LNG, LLC announced the formal submission of its Waterway Suitability Assessment (WSA) to the United States Coast Guard (USCG), marking a significant step in the company’s engagement with the full suite of federal agencies required to authorize the development, construction and operation of its proposed 25 million tonne per annum (MTPA) LNG export terminal at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, 98 miles south of New Orleans.
The WSA, submitted pursuant to 33 CFR Part 127, requests a formal USCG assessment of the suitability of the waterways serving the proposed Argent LNG terminal, including Belle Pass, Bayou Lafourche, and the Gulf of America approach channels, for LNG carrier vessel traffic.
What is the purpose of a WSA?
The assessment evaluates navigation safety, vessel traffic management, waterway characteristics and the operational requirements of LNG carriers ranging from 125,000 to 260,000 cubic meters of cargo capacity that will serve the Port Fourchon terminal.
The WSA submission represents Argent LNG’s formal engagement with the U.S. Coast Guard as the third major federal agency in the company’s regulatory framework, alongside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with which Argent LNG has submitted eleven Resource Reports as part of its ongoing pre-filing environmental review process, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which issued DOE/HGEO Order No. 5447 on July 23, 2026, granting Argent LNG long-term authorization to export 25 MTPA of domestically produced LNG for a 20-year term.
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“The Waterway Suitability Assessment submission to the U.S. Coast Guard reflects our commitment to engaging every federal agency in our regulatory matrix with the same rigor and discipline that we bring to every workstream of this project,” said Jonathan Bass, Chairman and CEO of Argent LNG. “With FERC, DOE, and now the U.S. Coast Guard all actively engaged, Argent LNG is demonstrating the kind of multi-agency regulatory execution that serious infrastructure projects at this scale require. Each agency engagement is a de-risking event. Each submission moves us closer to the complete federal approval framework that underpins our path to a final investment decision.”
