Cheniere

Electricite de France SA (EDF) has signed up to be the first foundation customer for the third train of Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC project in Corpus Christi, TX.

Appalachian pure-play operator Antero Resources Corp. said Friday it has signed an agreement with a Cheniere Energy Inc. subsidiary to sell 50,000 MMBtu/d of natural gas to the company’s Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana.

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 Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC has struck a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with PT Pertamina (Persero) under which Pertamina has agreed to purchase about 0.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a liquefaction and export terminal being developed near Corpus Christi, TX. Cheniere Inc. shares hit a new high on Friday following the news.

Due to the recent shutdown of the federal government, the Galveston District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could not give a time frame for when the agency would issue a permitting decision on the expansions of the Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC terminal, a Cheniere Energy Inc. affiliate, and the associated Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline. [CP13-553]. The processing of permits will take approximately 120 days. The projects then will be put out for public notice, the agency said. The plant and pipeline expansion projects would add trains 5 and 6, representing additional liquefaction capacity of about 1.3 Bcf/d.

Britain’s Centrica plc has struck a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with Cheniere Energy Partners LP’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC for 1.75 million metric tons per annum (mmtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) with deliveries to begin as early as 2018. The contracted amount is equivalent to 91,250,000 MMBtu/year and with Sabine’s contract with Total Gas & Power North America Inc. (see NGI, Dec. 24, 2012), brings Train 5 contracted volumes to 3.75 mmtpa. Centrica, Sabine’s sixth LNG export customer, is to buy LNG on a free on board basis at a Henry Hub indexed price, plus a fixed component,. The 20-year contract, contingent on regulatory and financing approvals, begins on the date of first commercial delivery from Train 5 and has an extension option of up to 10 years. Centrica businesses include British Gas, which serves about 12 million homes in Britain, nearly half of the country’s homes, and Direct Energy, which has businesses in natural gas production, power generation and distribution in North America.

Cheniere Energy Inc. unit Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC has applied to the U.S. Department of Energy to export additional volumes from its planned terminal in Cameron Parish, LA. Sabine Pass is seeking authorization to export to both free trade agreement (FTA) and non-FTA countries the equivalent of 101 Bcf per year in support of a contract it struck last December with Total Gas & Power North America Inc. (see Daily GPI, Dec. 18, 2012). The term of the 20-year agreement begins upon the first commercial delivery for the project’s fifth train and has an extension option of up to 10 years. However, Sabine Pass said it is not obligated to serve the Total contract from train five and may use whatever capacity is available at the facility. Recently, Sabine Pass and related companies filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to set in motion the approval process for the project’s fifth and sixth trains (see Daily GPI, March 7).

Cheniere Energy Partners LP unit Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC and Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals Inc. have entered into a lump sum turnkey contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the third and fourth liquefaction trains to be constructed adjacent to the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, LA. The contract price is about $3.8 billion. Total expected costs for the third and fourth trains before financing are estimated to be between $4.5 billion and $5 billion.Sabine Liquefaction intends to give Bechtel a notice to proceed upon achieving financing and a final investment decision. Construction for the third and fourth trains is expected to begin in the first half of 2013. Sabine Liquefaction commenced full construction for the first two liquefaction trains in August. Sabine Liquefaction recently announced that it is developing a fifth and sixth liquefaction train at the project and has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Total Gas & Power North America Inc. (see Daily GPI, Dec. 18).

Exporting liquefied domestic natural gas to world markets would generate a net benefit to the U.S. economy, and the more liquefied natural gas (LNG) that’s exported, the greater the benefit, according to a macroeconomic analysis of the impact of LNG exports commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and released for public comment Wednesday.