Energy Transfer is planning to take a final investment decision on its proposed Lake Charles LNG export facility in Louisiana by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
The company has announced six SPAs during this year, bringing the total amount of LNG contracted from its Lake Charles LNG export facility to nearly 8 mtpa.
The customers include China Gas, Gunvor, ENN, SK Gas, and Shell.
Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG project seeks to convert the company’s existing regasification terminal to an LNG export facility.
It has a proposed liquefaction capacity of 16.45 mtpa and includes three trains but also modifications to the Trunkline Gas pipeline.
“We are making progress on all aspects of the project and we’re now targeting FID by the end of the first quarter of 2023,” Tom Long, co-CEO of Energy Transfer, told analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
“As we have previously stated, we expect to finance a significant portion of the capital cost of this project by means of the sale of equity in the project to infrastructure funds and possibly to one and more industry participants in conjunction with LNG offtake agreements,” Long said.
Non-binding deals with Japanese customers
Long also said that Energy Transfer has recently signed non-binding letter agreements with two Japanese customers for LNG offtake.
He did not reveal the names of the two firms.
In addition to these deals, the company is in “active negotiations with several customers for long-term offtake contracts for significant volumes of LNG,” he said.
“Upon completion of the LNG project, we expect to realize significant incremental cash flows from transportation of natural gas on our Trunkline pipeline system and other energy transfer pipelines upstream from Lake Charles,” Long added.
