Energy Transfer’s Trunkline LNG Export LLC and Gasfin Development USA LLC have joined the conga line and filed separate applications with the Department of Energy (DOE) to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Louisiana.

Trunkline LNG wants to export 15 million metric tons/year (730 Bcf/year) over 25 years from its Lake Charles terminal. Modifications would be made to the terminal to allow liquefaction. It wants to export the same amount of LNG as Lake Charles Exports LLC (LCE) requested in an earlier application, the Houston-based company noted.

“Trunkline LNG Export’s application is nonadditive…Trunkline LNG Export is seeking to expand the potential customers it does business with, but is not seeking to export any additional volumes of LNG from the Lake Charles facility.”

In August 2011, DOE approved LCE’s request to export LNG from the Lake Charles terminal, which is owned by Trunkline Co., to any country with which the United States has, or will have in the future, a free trade agreement (FTA) (see NGI, Aug. 8, 2011). However, DOE set aside LCE’s request to export LNG to non-FTA countries, saying it would address it in a separate decision.

LCE is a venture formed by Houston-based Southern Union and BG LNG Services LLC, a subsidiary of BG Group plc. If approved, LCE and Trunkline LNG would export a total of 15 million metric tons of LNG. The partnership was formed more than a year after Southern Union received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to place into service its Trunkline LNG Infrastructure Enhancement Project, which involved installing four ambient air vaporization units and building a natural gas liquids extraction facility at the regasification terminal in Lake Charles.

Gasfin Development, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Gasfin Development SA, separately has requested authority to export up to 74 Bcf/y of LNG over 25 years to FTA nations. The company is seeking the export authorization in conjunction with a proposal to develop, own and operate the Gasfin LNG Export Project, a mid-scale liquefaction and export terminal along the Calcasieu River in Cameron Parish, LA.

The project would be near several major pipelines, including Tennessee Gas Pipeline, ANR Pipeline, Bridgeline Holdings LP, Columbia Gulf Transmission and Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, and would cross multiple conventional and unconventional gas plays. “The project will have the ability to source gas from almost any point on the U.S. natural gas pipeline grid through direct physical delivery or by displacement on the spot market or pursuant to long-term supply arrangements for the account of Gasfin or third-party customers,” Gasfin said.

While it is engaged in commercial discussions with large industrial customers and utility companies in the Caribbean and Central America, Gasfin said it has not yet entered into long-term supply, nor long-term purchase, and sale/export agreements.

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