For the third time this year, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) granted liquefied natural gas (LNG) export authority to American LNG Marketing LLC. The approval announced Friday is to market containerized LNG shipments to non-free trade agreement (FTA) nations, covering up to 800 MMcf/d for 20 years.

In March, the company, which is building a liquefaction facility near Medley, FL, in Miami-Dade County, received DOE authorization for exports to FTA nations (see Daily GPI, March 23).

Under the company’s long-standing plans, ISO containers designated for delivery to export customers would be loaded onto container ships or roll-on/roll-off oceangoing carriers at the nearby Port of Miami or other Florida ports capable of handling such cargo, DOE said. Likely destinations for the cargoes, according to American LNG, are nations in the Caribbean and Central America.

As it reiterates in all of the export cases, DOE said it conducted “an extensive, careful review” of the American LNG plans, assessing economic, energy security and environmental impacts. Essentially, the federal agency found that the project is in the public interest.

In June, American LNG received another green light from DOE for a second export authorization to FTA nations for a 82.6 MMcf/d liquefaction project near Titusville, FL, which would be built by affiliate TICO Development Partners LLC (see Daily GPI, June 1).

In this case, the LNG would be delivered to approved ISO containers (truck- or rail-mounted), then loaded onto container ships or roll-on/roll-off oceangoing carriers for export at the nearby Port Canaveral or other ports in Florida capable of handling such ISO containers without modification (including Port Everglades, Port of Miami, Port of Palm Beach, and Port of Jacksonville), according to the DOE order [15-19-LNG].

The Titusville facility plans to tap the domestic gas supply market through an interconnection constructed by Florida Gas Transmission near existing lateral lines south of the proposed facility and west of a nearby power plant. Through Florida Gas Transmission’s upstream interconnections, the LNG production facility would be able to source gas from a variety of U.S. supply basins.

“The development of U.S. natural gas resources is having a transformative impact on the U.S. energy landscape,” DOE said. “It is helping to improve our energy security while spurring economic development and job creation around the country.”