Dominion Cove Point (DCP) has asked the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for authorization to begin exporting commissioning cargos from its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, MD.

According to the company’s website, the export project was 84% complete last month and is expected to enter service late this year. DCP asked DOE for short-term blanket authorization to export commissioning volumes that would be sourced from domestically produced natural gas and/or from LNG previously imported by vessel at the Cove Point LNG terminal from foreign sources.

“DCP commits that the commissioning volumes to be exported under the requested authorization, when added to any volumes exported under DCP’s long-term export authorizations, will not exceed 250 Bcf in any annual (12 consecutive month) period, so that the quantity exported in any year shall not exceed the level previously authorized by DOE…” the company told the regulator, according to a notice in the Federal Register.

The request is now open for a 30-day public comment period.

“All of the major equipment has been set in place and now the focus is on completing the installation of piping, cable trays, cables and cable terminations,” DCP said in a March project update on its website. A spokesman told NGIThursday that no additional information was available about terminal progress or the commissioning cargo authorization request at DOE.

The liquefaction project’s marketed capacity is fully subscribed under 20-year service agreements. Pacific Summit Energy LLC, a U.S. affiliate of Japan’s Sumitomo Corp.; and GAIL Global (USA) LNG LLC, a U.S. affiliate of GAIL (India) Ltd., each have contracted for half of the marketed capacity. Sumitomo has said it has agreements to serve Tokyo Gas Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc.