Cheniere progresses commissioning of seventh Corpus Christi expansion train

Last week, Cheniere’s unit Corpus Christi Liquefaction received approval from the US FERC to introduce propane into the mid-scale Train 7 thermal oxidizer and hot oil furnace for the Stage 3 project.

Based on the commissioning progress for the sixth train, Cheniere could reach substantial completion of the seventh train in September this year, or even in August.

According to FERC’s previous reports, the regulator approved Cheniere’s request to introduce propane into the midscale Train 6 thermal oxidizer and hot oil furnace on March 31.

Cheniere then received approval to introduce fuel gas to the sixth train approximately two weeks after that, and approval to introduce feed gas to the warm end of the train at the end of April.

The US LNG exporter announced the substantial completion of the sixth train on June 12.

“We continue to work closely with Bechtel, our engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, and expect to complete the full seven-train, 10-plus-million-tonne-per-annum (mtpa) expansion later this year,” the company said at the time.

Cheniere and Bechtel are also building the CCL midscale Trains 8 and 9 project, a second expansion under construction at Corpus Christi.

The project and estimated debottlenecking opportunities stand to add another approximately 5 mtpa of capacity by late 2028.

That would put CCL at over 30 mtpa and Cheniere as a whole at over 60 mtpa.

In addition to these CCL expansions, Cheniere received approval from FERC to initiate the environmental pre-filing review for its Corpus Christi Liquefaction Stage 4 project.

The trains will have a peak production capacity of approximately 24 mtpa of LNG.