Port Arthur LNG's Phase II to Include Two Trains and Storage

Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The second phase of the Port Arthur export facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will include two more liquefaction units and storage capacity, Sempra Energy (San Diego, California) announced after making a final investment decision on the project.

Port Arthur LNG, an offshoot of Sempra, is working with engineering firm Bechtel Corporation (Reston, Virginia) to develop the export facility in Texas. The current facility includes 150,000 cubic meters of LNG storage capacity and can export as much as 6.5 million metric tons per annum (MTPA) for each existing liquefaction center.

With capital expenditures pegged at about $12 billion, the two new liquefaction units, or trains, will double the nameplate capacity to 26 MTPA.

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Both phases have received approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export LNG to countries without a U.S. free trade agreement, which comes as the domestic LNG sector is expanding. It's unclear what impact, if any, President Donald Trump's frequently shifting trade policies would have on those arrangements.

ConocoPhillips (Houston, Texas) is considered an anchor partner at Port Arthur after it reached an offtake agreement for the second phase of Port Arthur, building on an existing agreement for the first phase.

Under the new long-term sales and purchase agreement, brokered in August, ConocoPhillips will purchase 4 MTPA of LNG from Phase II, which is under development in Jefferson County, Texas, and offtake LNG over a 20-year period on a free-on-board basis.

In 2022, the company signed a 20-year agreement to offtake 5 MTPA from Phase I and executed an agreement to purchase 30% equity stake in the project. Phase I is expected to start up and begin exports in 2027, with Phase II expected by the early 2030s.

Elsewhere, Sempra agreed to sell a 45% equity interest in Sempra Infrastructure Partners to affiliates of investment firm KKR (New York, New York) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, in a deal with an equity value of $22.2 billion.

Port Arthur should help to ensure the U.S. as the global leader in LNG exports, with developers saying the project would support energy demand in Asia and energy security in the European Union.

Existing facilities, however, have been prone at times to malfunctions, with the Freeport LNG terminal beset by power issues. The Cove Point facility in Maryland, meanwhile, started regular annual maintenance that will bring production there to near zero. Maintenance is expected to last through October 10.

Domestic consumption, meanwhile, is on pace with seasonal norms, though net natural gas production is on pace to decline. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the DOE, forecasts that natural gas production to drop by about 0.25% next year.

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