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The JV said on Monday that this achievement reflects “years of planning, engineering, permitting, construction, start-up activities, and community collaboration.”
First LNG paves the way for Golden Pass LNG to deliver its first cargo, achieve sustained liquefaction operations, and meet its commercial and strategic objectives, it said.
Golden Pass anticipates beginning LNG exports to global customers in the second quarter of 2026.
The LNG terminal has three liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 18.1 million tons per year, five 155,000 cbm LNG storage tanks, and two marine berths to accommodate the world’s largest LNG carriers.
State-owned QatarEnergy, whose LNG and other facilities in Ras Laffan were recently attacked, owns a 70 percent stake in the Golden Pass project and will offtake 70 percent of the capacity, while US energy firm ExxonMobil has a 30 percent share.
The launch of the facility comes at a time when countries in Asia and Europe are scrambling for replacement LNG supplies following the closure of the Ras Laffan facility.
QatarEnergy CEO and Qatari energy minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said in a separate statement that” first LNG is of particular importance for one of the largest single investment decisions in US LNG history.”
“The operational phase and market entry of Golden Pass LNG will come at an important time when global energy security ranks very high on energy agendas worldwide,” he said.
“Golden Pass LNG is part of a wider QatarEnergy strategy for international investments that we have been planning over the past decade. It also represents a significant part of the plans announced by QatarEnergy in 2018 to invest 20 billion dollars in the US energy sector,” Al-Kaabi said.
Chiyoda and McDermott
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said earlier this year he expected the Golden Pass LNG export project to produce first LNG volumes in early March.
He said that Train 1 achieved mechanical completion late in the last year.
A joint venture of Chiyoda, McDermott, and Zachry won the EPC contract to build the three Golden Pass trains worth about $10 billion next to the existing LNG import terminal in the vicinity of Sabine Pass, Texas.
However, Zachry Holdings said in May 2024 that it had filed for bankruptcy, initiating a structured exit from the Golden Pass LNG export project due to “financial challenges” related to the facility’s construction.
In November 2024, Japan’s Chiyoda and McDermott’s CB&I reached a deal with Golden Pass LNG to complete the construction of the first liquefaction train following the exit of Zachry.
Additionally, Chiyoda and McDermott signed a revised EPC contract with Golden Pass LNG in November 2025 to complete the construction of the second and third liquefaction units.
