Cheniere Energy announced a nearly $3 billion expansion project to increase its handling and exporting of liquefied natural gas, creating the LNG out of the natural gas it receives from Oklahoma and various other sources.
The Texas company said the $2.9 billion expansion will increase production by 3 million metric tons a year. Some of the natural gas comes via the Midship pipeline which carries natural gas from Oklahoma’s STACK play to the different ports along the Texas Coast.
Cheniere announced that its Board of Directors has made a positive Final Investment Decision with respect to the Corpus Christi Midscale Trains 8 & 9 and Debottlenecking Project and has issued full notice to proceed to Bechtel Energy, Inc. for construction of CCL Midscale Trains 8 & 9. CCL Midscale Trains 8 & 9 is being built adjacent to the Corpus Christi Stage 3 Project and consists of two midscale trains with an expected total liquefaction capacity of over 3 million tonnes per annum (“mtpa”) of liquefied natural gas and other debottlenecking infrastructure. Upon completion of CCL Midscale Trains 8 & 9, and together with expected debottlenecking and CCL Stage 3, the Corpus Christi LNG terminal is expected to reach over 30 mtpa in total liquefaction capacity later this decade.
Cheniere also announced an updated run-rate LNG production outlook, which reflects an increase in the combined liquefaction capacity across the Cheniere platform at Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi by over 10% to over 60 mtpa inclusive of CCL Midscale Trains 8 & 9, CCL Stage 3, and identified debottlenecking opportunities across the platform.
|
|
|
Previous |
Revised |
Total |
|
Large-Scale Trains |
Number of Trains |
9 |
9 |
– |
|
Run-Rate Capacity4 (mtpa) |
~44 – ~46 |
~45 – ~47 |
+ ~1 mtpa |
|
|
Midscale Trains |
Number of Trains |
7 |
9 |
+ 2 Trains |
|
Run-Rate Capacity4 (mtpa) |
~10 – ~11 |
~15 – ~16 |
+ ~5 mtpa |
|
|
Total |
Run-Rate Capacity4 (mtpa) |
~54 – ~57 |
~60 – ~63 |
+ ~6 mtpa |
In addition, Cheniere is developing further brownfield liquefaction capacity expansions at both the Corpus Christi and Sabine Pass terminals. The Company expects these expansions to be executed in a phased approach, starting with initial single-train expansions at each site which, if completed, would grow Cheniere’s LNG platform to up to approximately 75 mtpa of capacity by the early 2030s.
With today’s FID and the existing share repurchase authorization, Cheniere is on track to meet its previously announced ‘20/20 Vision’ capital allocation plan of deploying approximately $20 billion of capital by 2026 and reaching approximately $20 per share of run-rate Distributable Cash Flow.
