The US will add no new LNG export capacity this year for the first time since it became an exporter in 2016. But that lull won’t last long. At least five facilities are under construction and due for completion in the coming years, several other expansions have recently been sanctioned and more Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) are on the way. Export development is expected to accelerate in the coming years, the race to untangle feed pipeline routes is on. More natural gas pipeline capacity will be needed, especially to move gas supplies to coastal Louisiana, where most of the new liquefaction will be located. On today’s RBN blog, we resume our series on pipeline expansions targeting LNG export demand, this time highlighting TC Energy’s Gillis Access project and how it fits into the market picture of Louisiana LNG.
In the first part In this blog series, we provided an overview of US LNG export projects driving midstream development along the Gulf Coast, including those that are already operational, have reached FID, or are fully subscribed and about to reach FID. In Louisiana (or just across the border in Texas), these include Venture Global’s (VG) Calcasieu Pass, which is indeed operational but not yet commercialized; QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil’s Golden Pass; the first phase of Sempra Energy Port Arthur LNG; and VG LNG mines in southeast Louisiana, including phases 1 and 2. In southeast Texas, Cheniere sanctioned its Corpus Christi Phase III project last summer, while NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG in Brownsville, TX, received federal approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the second time after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the agency to review its first authorization .
In addition to these, there are many other greenfield facilities proposed for the Texas-Louisiana coast that are working to secure regulatory approvals and/or commercial commitments to reach FID, such as Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG , VG’s CP2 LNG, Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG, and VG’s Delta LNG, among others. In terms of brownfield expansions, Cheniere is considering another mid-scale expansion in Corpus Christi, while Sempra’s Cameron LNG and Freeport LNG have announced Train 4 expansions. Cheniere also recently announced a major expansion of 20 million tons per annum (MMtpa; ~2.6 Bcf/d) from its Sabine Pass LNG facility. (For a complete list and map of projects, including offshore facilities, see RBN’s LNG Voyager Quarterly.)
