Cheniere Files Request With U.S. To Expand LNG Export Capacity -Filing

   By Ben Lefebvre 
 

HOUSTON--Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) has filed applications with the federal government to add an additional 9 million metric tons of annual gas export capacity at the liquefied natural gas export terminal it is building in Sabine Pass, La., according to filings with federal regulators and an Energy Department spokesman.

The request filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy are the first concrete regulatory steps Cheniere has taken to add a fifth and sixth processing unit, or trains, which Cheniere had already announced it was pursuing.

Cheniere in December agreed to supply Total S.A. (TOT) with two million metric tons a year of LNG for 20 years from the fifth train pending regulatory approval and financing. Cheniere's latest FERC application is an initial filing that could take at least six months to process before proceeding to a more formal petition with the federal agency, said a person familiar with the matter.

Cheniere is the first--and currently only-- company to hold permits to export LNG out of the lower U.S. Cheniere and its competitors hope to sell U.S. natural gas abroad as hydraulic fracturing and other drilling innovations have led to a massive increase in natural gas supply and a glut in the domestic gas market.

Cheniere in 2011 received permits to export to countries not holding a free trade agreement with the U.S., a lucrative market that includes such large LNG buyers as Japan. The Department of Energy has since had a moratorium on approving LNG export permits as it studies how exports would affect natural gas prices.

Cheniere also has filed two applications for the fifth and sixth trains with the Department of Energy, one for countries holding a free trade agreement with the U.S. and one for non-FTA countries, a Department of Energy representative said.

The Houston-based business plans to ship 7.7 million metric tons a year from two trains at its the Sabine Pass terminal by 2016, and is expecting permission to ship another 8.3 million metric tons a year from a third and fourth train by 2017.

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