Cheniere Energy Partners has completed the commissioning of its first liquefaction train at the Sabine Pass liquefaction project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Bechtel, the contractor on the project, completed construction work on Friday and turned over care, custody and control of Train 1 to Cheniere Partners.
Cheniere is taking control of Train 1 "months ahead of the guaranteed completion date and on budget," CEO Jack Fusco said, noting staff had "worked tirelessly since 2012 to complete this significant milestone."
Sabine Pass LNG shipped its first LNG export cargo in February, with the sailing of the tanker Asia Vision to Brazil loaded with the LNG equivalent of 3.44 Bcf of gas.
A total of 10 LNG cargoes have been exported from the terminal to date.
BG owns rights to most of the supply to be produced from Train 1 and Cheniere said it expects the first major commercial delivery of LNG from Train 1 to BG to occur in November under a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with BG Gulf Coast LNG.
Now that Train 1 has achieved substantial completion, going forward Cheniere expects to include financial results from its LNG sales in its statement of operations.
In addition to Train 1, Cheniere Partners, through its subsidiary, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC, plans to construct up to five more liquefaction trains, which are in various stages of development and construction. The trains will be built next to Sabine Pass LNG's existing regasification facilities.
Train 2 is undergoing commissioning and is expected to begin producing LNG in due course; Trains 3 through 5 are under construction and Train 6 is fully permitted. Each liquefaction train is expected to have a nominal production capacity of about 4.5 million mt/year of LNG, the company said.
To date, SPL has entered into six third-party LNG sale and purchase agreements that add up to about 19.75 million mt/year of LNG.
