US LNG exporter Sempra has secured approval from the US FERC for its revised expansion plans for the Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana.
Cameron LNG operates the existing three-train 12 mtpa liquefaction facility and is owned by Sempra’s unit Sempra Infrastructure and its partners.
Other partners include affiliates of TotalEnergies, Mitsui & Co, and Japan LNG Investment, a company held by Mitsubishi Corp and NYK.
Besides these three trains, Sempra and its partners are working to expand the project and previously planned to build two additional LNG units, adding about 10 mtpa.
However, the partners changed their original plans and aim to build only the fourth train with a capacity of about 6.75 mtpa.
Five years
Cameron LNG submitted the application for a limited amendment to the FERC in January last year and updated the application in March the same year.
The US FERC has now approved the proposed amended expansion project, according to a filling dated March 16.
The regulator said that it finds that the “amended expansion project, with the conditions imposed in this order, is not inconsistent with the public interest.”
“Therefore, we will grant Cameron LNG’s application for authorization under section 3 of the NGA to construct and operate its amended expansion project,” it said.
“Cameron LNG’s proposed facilities shall be constructed and made available for service within five years of the date of this order,” the regulator said.
Additionally, the Commission will vacate Cameron LNG’s authorization to site, construct, and operate Train 5 and the fifth LNG storage tank authorized in the 2016 order, it said.
Electric train
Specifically, the amended expansion project includes the addition of a feed gas booster compressor to Train 4 to increase feed gas pressure, and the addition of an inlet gas propane refrigeration package to the train.
Moreover, Cameron LNG will replace the Train 4 refrigerant compressor gas turbine drives with electric drive motors to reduce GHG emissions from the LNG terminal.
The project also includes the addition of tie-ins to allow the option to access carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) facilities that may be developed in the region at some point in the future.
FID this year?
Sempra is expecting to take a final investment decision to expand its Cameron LNG export plant this year.
Cameron LNG awarded two front-end engineering design (FEED) contracts to Bechtel and a joint venture between JGC America and Zachry Industrial.
“This process is on track to be completed in the summer of this year, and we would expect to make a final investment decision shortly thereafter,” Justin Bird, CEO of Sempra infrastructure, said during Sempra’s recent 2022 earnings call.
Sempra Infrastructure has just taken a final decision for the first phase of its Port Arthur LNG export project in Texas worth about $13 billion.
The first phase of the Port Arthur LNG project will have two trains with a total capacity of about 13.5 million tonnes per annum and two storage tanks with a capacity of 160,000 cbm.