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Cheniere’s Corpus Christi plant in Texas currently liquefies natural gas at three operational trains, each with a capacity of about 5 mtpa, while its 30 mtpa Sabine Pass terminal in Louisana has six trains.
In June 2022, Cheniere made the final investment decision on the Corpus Christi Stage 3 expansion project, worth about $8 billion.
Compatriot Bechtel officially started construction on the project in October of the same year.
The project includes building seven midscale trains, each with an expected liquefaction capacity of about 1.49 mtpa.
Cheniere’s unit, Corpus Christi Liquefaction, said in the September construction report filed with the US FERC that the overall project completion rate for Stage 3 is 67.8 percent.
Fusco said during Cheniere’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday that Bechtel continues construction execution on Corpus Christi Stage 3 “on budget and on accelerated schedule.”
“Pre-commissioning activities continue on Train 1, with nearly half the required systems turned over to commissioning and start-up teams, who are beginning to place those systems into service,” he said.
Fusco noted Cheniere expects the introduction of first gas into Train 1 to occur in the coming weeks saying that “first gas is an important execution milestone.”
“And from a timing perspective, with that milestone occurring soon, it is consistent with the production of first LNG by the end of the year,” he said.
First three trains in 2025
“We are fortunate this year to avoid any impact from hurricanes on operations or construction activities at both Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi,” Fusco said.
“As a result, our target of achieving first LNG production from Train 1 at Stage 3 by the end of the year remains within reach and substantial completion in early 2025, well ahead of the guaranteed schedule,” he said.
He said Cheniere continues to expect to have three trains from Stage 3 achieve substantial completion during 2025.
“Based on the progress achieved to date, we forecast Train 1 to achieve substantial completion at the end of Q1 or early Q2 next year and Trains 2 and 3 to achieve substantial completion in the second half of the year,” Cheniere CFO Zach Davis said during the call.
“With this assumption, we expect to produce approximately 47 million to 48 million tonnes of LNG in total across our two sites next year, inclusive of forecast Stage 3 volumes and a major maintenance plan at Sabine Pass next year,” he said.
New design and technology
Davis said the Stage 3 trains are being built with a design and technology “that is new to us, so the length and extent of the commissioning process is somewhat uncertain.”
“As the initial trains start commissioning, we will gain a better sense on the specific timing of these new volumes and their contribution to our financial results next year. As with the commissioning of our first nine trains, we hope to improve the commissioning process for each subsequent train, by deploying lessons learned,” he said.
“We expect the remaining four mid-scale trains to reach substantial completion in 2026, at which point we have several million tonnes of new long-term contracts starting in 2026 and 2027, keeping our platform over 90 percent contracted with investment grade counterparties and take-or-pay style cash flows and averaging approximately 95 percent contracted through the mid-2030s,” he said.