US LNG exporter Cheniere still expects to launch the sixth production train at its Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana by the end of this year. The firm also sees substantial completion of the unit about a year before than planned.
The 25 mtpa Sabine Pass plant has five operational trains and is currently the largest such facility in the US.
Bechtel is building the sixth train which will add 5 mtpa of capacity to the facility. In total, this is the ninth train the engineering giant is building for Cheniere, including the Corpus Christi plant where Bechtel recently handed over the third train.
Cheniere said in its first-quarter report it now expects substantial completion of Train 6 in the first half of 2022.
This means that the firm now expects Bechtel to complete the train one year ahead of the original schedule as it previously also moved the estimate from the first half of 2023 to the second half of 2022.
Commissioning to start this year
“I’d like to say, we have figured out how to stick build these trains faster and better than probably anywhere else in the world. And it is way ahead of accelerated schedule probably close to a year ahead,” Cheniere’s chief executive Jack Fusco told analysts during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday.
“So I would expect that barring decent weather because we are about ready to head into the hurricane season again, which seems almost never-ending anymore. But baring decent weather, we’ll be producing LNG and commissioning on that train before the end of the year,” he said.
Fusco said earlier this year the company had expected to launch the sixth train this year.
In the first quarter, Cheniere’s revenue increased to $3.09 billion from $2.71 billion a year earlier.
Consolidated adjusted Ebitda rose 40 percent to $1.45 billion primarily due to increased margins while net income increased 5 percent to $393 million, Cheniere has said.