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DNR Secretary Angelle Applauds Two Major Louisiana Natural Gas Export Milestones

Sabine Pass liquefaction facility receives full federal clearance to begin construction- Cameron LNG operator signs contract committing to construct another

BATON ROUGE –Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Scott Angelle today offered congratulations to Cheniere Energy for its success in gaining the last federal approval needed to begin construction on the first new U.S. facility in more than 40 years equipped to convert domestic natural gas to liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export, and to Sempra Energy for signing a development agreement with investment partners to build out liquefaction and export capability at the Cameron LNG facility in Hackberry.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG facility in Cameron Parish permission to begin construction on the planned $5 billion-plus expansion of its existing LNG import capability to include liquefaction of domestic natural gas. The U.S. Department of Energy had previously granted the facility permission to export up to 2.2 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas per day to any nation in the world not currently covered by economic sanctions.

Sabine LNG already has four separate 20-year contracts in place for exports to India, Spain, South Korea and other global markets, worth a total of about $2 billion a year.

Sempra Energy has announced that it now has an agreement in place to develop liquefaction and export capacity of 1.7 bcf per day at Cameron LNG, including commitments for construction funding and seeking of necessary regulatory approvals, and has already contracted an engineering firm to manage the project.

Angelle also noted that recently operators of a third Louisiana-based LNG import facility formally started the process of securing FERC approval for building out liquefaction capacity at the Trunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles.

“I want to offer Cheniere Energy and our federal regulators congratulations and appreciation for working together moving this project forward – the first of its kind in a generation and the second in our nation’s history –and for establishing a procedural path in providing new markets for domestic natural gas and new economic stability in our natural gas markets that could mean more exploration, more jobs and more countries around the world dependent on us for energy instead of the other way around,” Angelle said. “At the same time, I also want to offer my appreciation to Sempra Energy and Trunkline LNG for recognizing the potential of the Calcasieu-Cameron area of Louisiana to become a national and international natural gas nexus, and their commitments to investing in our state and supporting domestic energy production and jobs.”

Sabine Pass LNG’s planned LNG export plant would be the first such plant constructed in the U.S. since Alaska’s Kenai LNG plant began operations in 1969 – primarily supplying Japan in recent years. Officials with Japan, the largest importer of LNG in the world, were also vocal proponents of expediting federal permits for construction and operation of Sabine Pass LNG. Investors based in Japan have also played significant roles in financing both the Sabine Pass LNG and Cameron LNG liquefaction projects.

“When we see that Cheniere, Sempra and Trunkline were able to find willing partners for these multi-billion-dollar investments even before FERC gave approval to the first project of this kind in four decades, with billions more in potential investment in the state in the petrochemical industry and in proposed plants to convert natural gas to liquid fuel – all driven by a stable supply of natural gas and all offering new opportunities for jobs and economic development –  it is a reminder that the discovery of shale natural gas such as the Haynesville Play in North Louisiana, a resource once thought unreachable and uneconomical, is changing the game in this nation and this state,” Angelle said.