Cheniere Gives Bechtel Green Light for Texas LNG Project

By Simon West

Bechtel has been given the go-ahead by Cheniere Energy to build two new midscale liquefaction units at Cheniere’s Corpus Christi liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in the U.S. state of Texas.

The full notice to proceed with the construction of trains 8 and 9 followed Cheniere’s final investment decision, announced in late June. The new units are expected to add three million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG capacity to the Corpus Christi terminal.

The trains will be built adjacent to the seven-train Corpus Christi Liquefaction Stage 3 (CCL3) project, which has already entered construction and commissioning phases. Once complete, the CCL3 project, trains 8 and 9, and other debottlenecking operations are expected to double overall capacity at the Gulf Coast facility to more than 30 mtpa.

“We expect all nine trains to be operational later this decade,” a spokesperson for Cheniere told Breakbulk.

The award for trains 8 and 9 extends a nearly 20-year partnership between Bechtel and Cheniere, which has delivered nine LNG trains across the company’s U.S. sites, including the Corpus Christi plant – the first greenfield LNG export terminal built in the U.S. in half a century.

Cheniere, the largest producer of LNG in the U.S., also operates Sabine Pass LNG on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The spokesperson said the company was also developing further brownfield capacity expansions at both terminals.

These phased expansions could boost Cheniere’s LNG platform to up to about 75 mtpa of capacity by the early 2030s.

Bechtel is a member of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network.