Spain’s Iberdrola SA has agreed to buy about 0.4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the first train of the Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC export terminal being developed in Texas, Cheniere Energy Inc. said Friday.

Cheniere, parent of Corpus Christi Liquefaction, said the Iberdrola commitment would increase to about 0.8 mtpa once the second train of the facility in Corpus Christi, TX, begins operation. The terminal is being designed and permitted for up to three trains with aggregate capacity of 13.5 mtpa.

Iberdrola is the first foundation customer of the project’s second train. The company will buy LNG on a free on board (FOB) basis for at a price indexed to the monthly Henry Hub price plus a fixed component. The price is to be equal to $3.50 plus 115% of the Henry Hub index; 14% of the fixed portion will be subject to an annual adjustment for inflation. These are the same terms as in the Corpus Christi Liquefaction contract with Spain’s Endesa Generacion SA (see Daily GPI, April 2).

LNG will be loaded onto Iberdrola’s vessels. The term of the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) is 20 years from the first commercial delivery of the second train of the Corpus Christi Liquefaction Project, with an extension option of up to 10 years. Deliveries from the second train are expected to occur in 2019.

“To date, we have entered into SPAs aggregating approximately 3.8 mtpa of LNG volumes,” said Cheniere CEO Charif Souki. “We are in advanced discussions with other counterparties and are working towards finalizing additional agreements. We expect to complete all necessary steps to reach a final investment decision and begin construction by early 2015.”

Cheniere and its Sabine Pass Liquefaction export terminal project in Louisiana are leading the pack of would-be LNG exporters. On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it is revamping its review process for permit applications to export to non-free trade agreement countries (see Daily GPI, May 29).

Cheniere shares spiked on the news Thursday and on Friday closed up 8.46% from Thursday’s close at $67.81 after setting a new 52-week intraday high of $68.34. Trading was heavy. Cheniere had been trading around $58.40 about the time the DOE news broke on Thursday.

The company’s Sabine Pass terminal is the only project to have obtained the necessary DOE and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorizations and is currently under construction.