FERC has authorized Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America LLC (NGPL) to start construction on the next phase of its Gulf Coast Southbound Project, which would feed the third liquefaction train under construction at Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi export facility in South Texas.

Cheniere subsidiary Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC has signed a precedent agreement for 300,000 Dth/d of incremental firm capacity from the expansion, which is designed to allow additional volumes to move south from an existing interconnect with the Alliance Pipeline in Grundy County, IL, to a delivery point with Cheniere Corpus Christi Pipeline LP in San Patricio County, TX.

The Cheniere Corpus Christi Pipeline is a 23-mile, 48-inch diameter line that supplies the Houston-based exporter’s LNG terminal in South Texas, where two trains are currently operating.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s notice to proceed clears NGPL to add horsepower at existing compressor stations in Victoria, Wharton and Harrison counties in Texas as part of the second phase of the project. In 2018, NGPL secured regulatory approval to begin service on the first phase of the Gulf Coast Southbound Project, designed to add 460,000 Dth/d of service on its Gulf Coast Mainline System.

In addition to the firm transportation capacity subscribed by Corpus Christi Liquefaction, the new compressor units to be installed for the project would create 28,000 Dth/d of incremental firm transportation capacity on Segment 26 of NGPL’s system.