Sempra Infrastructure’s ECA LNG exports first LNG cargo

As previously reported by LNG Prime, the 2024-built 174,000-cbm Pacific Success docked at the 3.25 mtpa facility earlier this week.

The TotalEnergies-operated Pacific Success was sailing in the North Pacific Ocean on Thursday morning, according to AIS data from VesselsValue.

Its final destination was not available.

Last month, Sempra Infrastructure, in which Sempra is reducing its ownership to 25 percent, announced that ECA LNG Phase 1 liquefaction project in Ensenada started producing LNG as part of the commissioning process toward commercial operations.

Sempra Infrastructure confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the project is expected to reach substantial completion in the summer of 2026, with sales under long-term sale and purchase agreements commencing shortly thereafter, when the facility begins commercial operations.

A second and significantly larger phase is also under active development at the same site.

Sempra Infrastructure and France’s TotalEnergies added natural gas liquefaction capabilities to the existing ECA LNG regasification terminal, located north of Ensenada in Mexico’s Baja California.

The partners took FID on the development back in 2020, and ECA LNG Phase 1 includes a single-train liquefaction facility with a nameplate capacity of 3.25 mtpa of LNG.

Also, TotalEnergies and Mitsui & Co will offtake a combined 2.5 mtpa of LNG from the facility under 20-year deals.

TotalEnergies, which will offtake 1.7 mtpa of LNG for 20 years, said in a separate statement that it will be the sole offtaker of LNG during the terminal’s ramp-up phase.

First liquefaction facility on Mexico’s Pacific Coast

Once the facility begins commercial operations, ECA LNG Phase 1 will be the first LNG liquefaction facility on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

“Due to its strategic location, it creates a competitive advantage for shippers from the facility, who have the unique ability to export US natural gas to Asia and other Pacific Basin markets through the shortest shipping route, thus reducing transportation times, costs, and uncertainty while providing customers with greater access to competitively priced US natural gas,” Sempra Infrastructure said.

“At a time of increased uncertainty in the global LNG trade, we are excited to begin shipping a new and reliable source of natural gas from North America’s Pacific Coast to customers around the globe,” said Justin Bird, chief executive officer of Sempra Infrastructure.

Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said the start-up of ECA LNG, “whose strategic location provides privileged access to Asian markets, strengthens the quality of our integrated LNG portfolio in North America.”

“TotalEnergies is pleased to contribute to the project’s ramp-up by exporting its first LNG cargoes,” he said.