Sabine Pass LNG LP received a positive environmental assessment from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a marine berth expansion project at its liquefied natural gas export terminal in Louisiana, which should allow the developer to add an additional 180 LNG cargoes annually.
In the Aug. 23 assessment, the FERC staff determined that the commission's approval of the third berth expansion project would not have major environmental impacts if the developer complies with recommended construction and mitigation measures.
The Cheniere Energy Inc. subsidiary proposed to build the new berth at the existing Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, La. The project would also include an LNG loading system.
The terminal currently has a single marine basin with two vessel berths, each capable of supporting LNG carriers with capacities up to 266,000 cubic meters for both import and export operations.
Sabine Pass LNG said the purpose of the berth project is to accommodate an increased number of carriers arriving at the terminal. The project should allow the terminal operator to add an additional 180 LNG cargoes annually, increasing the total to 580 LNG cargoes per year. The company told FERC that the expansion would also help minimize delays caused by adverse weather or ship traffic and would also remove bottlenecks associated with LNG loading. (FERC docket CP19-11)
The Sabine Pass terminal shipped the first LNG cargo from the Lower 48 in February 2016. Cheniere said on June 3 it had commercially sanctioned a sixth liquefaction train at its Sabine Pass export terminal.
