Kinder Morgan Inc. received authorization from federal regulators for the Elba Island LNG export terminal in Georgia to start commercial operations.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff issued the approval late Sept. 30. The approval allowed the first of 10 small liquefaction trains at the terminal to go into commercial service.
Kinder Morgan units Elba Liquefaction Co. LLC and Southern LNG Co. LLC asked for the approval earlier that day. They told the agency that the facility near Savannah, Ga., had completed necessary tests after an interruption earlier in the month caused by a threat from Hurricane Dorian, which forced Kinder Morgan to temporarily evacuate workers.
Kinder Morgan had maintained an estimated in-service date for the first train in the third quarter. The developer has been preparing Elba Island LNG for the first export since before LNG production began in July but has not shipped any commissioning cargoes. It remains unclear when the facility will export its first LNG shipment.
Kinder Morgan spokesperson Katherine Hill declined in an email to provide a timeline for the first export. Hill also declined to address questions about when the additional nine trains are expected to start producing LNG and whether there had been any additional interruptions caused by technical issues during startup. Kinder Morgan has indicated that the remaining trains will be in service in early 2020.
in August, Kinder Morgan CEO and director Steve Kean attributed earlier delays on the first train to mechanical issues with a pressure vessel known as a "cold box" and said part of the solution was a slower startup. On Sept. 4, Kean indicated at a Barclays energy conference in New York that weather had not been Elba Island LNG's only challenge, according to S&P Global Platts.
"We have looked at our peers a bit, and we are experiencing normal startup issues, nothing to indicate a design issue," Kean said at the time.
Elba Island LNG will have an LNG production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum when all of its modular trains are online, making it the smallest of the six major U.S. LNG export facilities in existence today. FERC staff's in-service approval made Elba Island LNG the fifth of those facilities to be cleared to enter commercial operations. The project is backed by a 20-year off-take agreement with Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
In Texas, Freeport LNG Development LP's export terminal is already shipping commissioning cargoes from its first train in anticipation of beginning commercial service in the coming weeks.

S&P Global Platts and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.
