Kinder Morgan Inc.'s Elba Island LNG export terminal in Georgia is ready to begin commercial service after Hurricane Dorian caused an additional delay in efforts to reach that milestone, the midstream company's subsidiaries told federal regulators on Sept. 30.
The subsidiaries, Elba Liquefaction Co. LLC and Southern LNG Co. LLC, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for authorization by the end of the day to enter the first of 10 small liquefaction trains into commercial service. The Kinder Morgan units had asked FERC on Aug. 9 for permission to enter the first train into commercial service. But the facility faced another setback in early September, when the hurricane threat forced Kinder Morgan to temporarily evacuate workers.
Kinder Morgan has not offered a specific date for when Elba Island LNG will export its first cargo. But the developers have been preparing the facility for the first export since before LNG production began in July. Kinder Morgan CEO and Director Steve Kean indicated that weather had not been Elba Island's only challenge during a Sept. 4 webcast presentation at a Barclays energy conference in New York, according to S&P Global Platts.
"We have looked at our peers a bit, and we are experiencing normal start-up issues, nothing to indicate a design issue," Kean said at the time. "But the question is, how many interruptions do you have as you start up?"
In a September investor presentation, Kinder Morgan maintained an estimated in-service date for the first train in the third quarter.
Elba Island LNG will have an LNG production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum when all 10 of its modular trains are online. The project, which is near Savannah, Ga., is backed by a 20-year offtake agreement with Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
In a certificate attached to the Sept. 30 request, officials with Kinder Morgan and Shell told FERC that the Elba Island LNG terminal had completed in-service tests that entailed operating the facility at full capacity over an eight-day period before and after the storm. (FERC docket CP14-103)

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