EPC Contract Awarded for Louisiana LNG Terminal

Cheniere Energy Partners has announced that its subsidiary, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, and Bechtel have entered into a US$3.9 billion lump sum turnkey contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the first two liquefaction trains at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

The new terminal will have a production capacityof 9 million tonnes per year of liquefied natural gas in the first phase of the project, according to a company statement. Sabine Liquefaction intends to give Bechtel a notice to proceed with construction for the first phase upon achieving acceptable financing arrangements and receiving authorization to commence construction from the FERC.

Bechtel will design, construct and commission two liquefaction trains using the ConocoPhillips Optimized Cascade technology. The liquefaction trains will be built next to the existing facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal, which include five tanks with storage capacity of 16.9 billion cubic feet equivalent, two docks that can handle vessels up to 265,000 cubic meters and vaporizers with regasification capacity of 4.0 billion cubic feet per day.

Construction is expected to begin in 2012 with LNG exports expected to occur as early as 2015.