Cheniere Energy shares jumped 9% Thursday to $31.25 after the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Chevron has elected to retain its capacity agreement for 700 MMcf/d of throughput at the proposed Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana. Chevron had an option to scale back its capacity at the terminal to 500 MMcf/d under a 20-year deal it signed with Cheniere last November.

Cheniere also said Thursday that Chevron still has the option until December of raising its capacity stake to 1 Bcf/d. Chevron entered a contract to become a long-term capacity holder at Sabine Pass after backing out of a deal to buy a stake in the terminal. Sabine Pass, which is under construction on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. That project is expected to have a peak vaporization of 2.6 Bcf/d and storage capacity for 480,000 cubic meters of LNG.

Chevron also has rights to market the throughput of Excelerate’s Gulf Gateways Energy Bridge LNG terminal offshore Louisiana. Meanwhile, the in-service date on Chevron’s Port Pelican LNG terminal offshore Louisiana in Vermillion Block 140 has been delayed until 2009. Port Pelican was the first LNG port to receive a permit from the Maritime Administration under the Deepwater Port Act.

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