Sempra Louisiana Cameron 1 export plant produces first LNG

Chiyoda

14/05/2019 13:57

May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. energy company Sempra Energy  SRE.N 
said on Tuesday the first liquefaction train at its $10 billion
Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana
has started producing LNG.
    Cameron is the fourth big LNG export facility to enter
service in the lower 48 U.S. states, keeping the United States
on track to become the third biggest LNG exporter in the world
in 2019, behind Qatar and Australia.
    Demand for natural gas, the cleanest of the fossil fuels, is
growing fast around the world as more countries use it to meet
increasing energy consumption and wean their power and
industrial sectors off dirty coal to cut pollution.
    Sempra said Cameron expects to load cargoes in coming weeks.
    The first three trains at Cameron will produce about 12
million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG, or roughly 1.7 billion
cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas. One billion cubic feet
of gas is enough to fuel about five million U.S. homes for a
day.
    Sempra has said it expects Cameron 2 and 3 to enter service
in the first and second quarters of 2020, respectively. 
    Cameron is jointly owned by affiliates of Sempra, Total SA
 TOTF.PA , Mitsui & Co Ltd  8031.T , and Japan LNG Investment
LLC, a company jointly owned by Mitsubishi Corp  8058.T  and
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK)  9101.T . Sempra indirectly
owns 50.2% of Cameron.
    McDermott International Inc  MDR.N  and Chiyoda Corp
 6366.T  are the lead contractors on the Cameron project.
    Sempra has a long-term goal of exporting 45 MTPA of North
American LNG and is developing a second two-train phase at
Cameron, the Port Arthur LNG export terminal in Texas and plans
to add export facilities in two phases at its existing Costa
Azul LNG import terminal in Baja California in Mexico.
    The three big LNG export facilities currently operating in
the United States are at Cheniere Energy Inc's  LNG.A  Sabine
Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas and Dominion
Energy Inc's  D.N  Cove Point in Maryland.
    Those plants quickly turned the United States into the
world's fourth biggest LNG exporter by the end of 2018, behind
Qatar, Australia and Malaysia, after the country sold no LNG at
the start of 2016 before the first unit at Cheniere's Sabine
entered service.
    Looking at the plants under construction, U.S. LNG export
capacity is expected to rise to 7.4 bcfd by the end of 2019 and
10.0 bcfd in 2020, from around 5.2 bcfd now.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N22F0I9

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Sempra on track to finish Louisiana Cameron LNG export terminal
in 2019     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1SE187
McDermott delays completion of U.S. Cameron LNG, speeds up
Freeport finish     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N22C1D4
GRAPHIC-Expansion of global LNG gasification and regasification
capacity    http://tmsnrt.rs/2mtY5CY
GRAPHIC-Growing global natural gas demand    http://tmsnrt.rs/2mtP90z
FACTBOX-North American liquefied natural gas export projects   
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N22F0I9
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 (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
 ((scott.disavino@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223-6072; Reuters
Messaging: scott.disavino.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))