Cheniere Energy Inc. wants federal approval to increase LNG production capacity at its two export terminals, with the company saying it can boost production by a total of about 0.7 Bcf/d of gas without needing to build any facilities beyond the ones already authorized.
Cheniere said it could achieve the production increase through operational efficiencies and facility improvements after gleaning insight from the five trains at its Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana and two trains at its Corpus Christi LNG terminal in Texas. Construction is underway on an additional train at each of the terminals.
"The requests for additional capacity are an acknowledgment that we have become more efficient in our production and our maintenance," Cheniere spokeswoman Jenna Palfrey said in an email.
Each of the Cheniere trains was designed to produce about 4.5 million tonnes per annum. But the run rate for the trains provided by Cheniere with its most recent earnings guidance in August was about 4.7 mtpa to 5.0 mtpa of LNG per train. Cheniere attributed the greater volume to debottlenecking projects, maintenance optimization and other factors. With maintenance optimization, the trains are able to run longer between the major outages required for such work, which means more LNG production.
The latest requests to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, filed Sept. 27, reflected this updated production capacity. Cheniere sought to increase the authorized LNG production capacity at Sabine Pass LNG by about 152.9 Bcf per year to about 1,661.9 Bcf per year. For Corpus Christi LNG, Cheniere asked FERC to approve an increase of 108.16 Bcf/year, pushing the authorized capacity up to 875.16 Bcf per year.
That works out to an authorized LNG production capacity of about 5.5 mtpa per train at Sabine Pass LNG and about 5.7 mtpa per train at Corpus Christi LNG, according to figures Cheniere provided to the regulator covering all authorized liquefaction units, including those still under construction. The increased output would add to a major ramp-up for Cheniere, which has long said facility improvements could lead to LNG production growth that would be roughly equivalent to a new train. Cheniere is also working to commercialize a 9.5-mtpa expansion of the Corpus Christi terminal in anticipation of a final investment decision on the project by the first half of next year.
Cheniere asked FERC to sign off on the requests for increased capacity by May 1, 2020. Because the changes would come as a "limited amendment" to the FERC authorization for each export terminal under the Natural Gas Act, they do not require an analysis by the agency, according to a recent note from energy analyst Katie Bays, co-founder of research and consulting firm Sandhill Strategy. The firm expected FERC to approve Cheniere's requests to accommodate the additional LNG output. (FERC dockets CP19-514, CP19-515)

