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Kinder Morgan compressor project serving Sabine Pass expansion ready for service from SNL Daily Gas Report Kinder Morgan compressor project serving Sabine Pass expansion ready for serviceA Kinder Morgan Inc. unit asked federal regulators for permission to place the remaining compression units of an expansion project on its Acadiana natural gas transportation system into service, a development that could advance Cheniere Energy Inc.'s plans to start producing LNG from the sixth liquefaction train at its flagship Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana by the end of the year. Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline LLC sought the in-service authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by Oct. 20, which would allow the developer to provide the full project transportation capacity of 894 MMcf/d at a time when global demand for LNG is strong and prices are high in end-user markets. The Kinder Morgan subsidiary received authorization from FERC almost one year ago to build the expansion project involving three new gas-fired compressor units at compressor station 760 (CP19-484). The developer has said 800 MMcf/d of the 894-MMcf/d capacity would go to serve Sabine Pass train six, while the rest would be available to the market. The Cheniere facility is already undergoing commissioning work and received approval from FERC on Sept. 22 to introduce feedgas to the train. Cheniere has said it expects to reach substantial completion on the facility in the first quarter of 2022. Once Cheniere begins to release LNG from the 5 million-tonne-per-year train, the company will reach about 45 Mt/y of LNG production capacity across its two U.S. export terminals. Total feedgas deliveries to the six major U.S. LNG export terminals in operation totaled about 10.7 Bcf/d on Oct. 13, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence pipeline flow data. Flows to Sabine Pass were about 3.7 Bcf/d. Upstream from the Acadiana project, another compressor-based pipeline expansion that will feed train six remains under construction. That expansion, TC Energy Corp.'s compressor-based Louisiana XPress project, would add 493 MMcf/d of incremental mainline gas transportation capacity on the Columbia Gulf Transmission LLC system (CP19-488). Combined with the use of existing capacity, the project would allow firm transportation service of about 850 MMcf/d on a north-to-south path from Columbia Gulf's Mainline pool to a primary delivery point at an interconnection with the Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline system in Evangeline Parish, La. Sabine Pass train six is Cheniere's ninth train across the company's two terminals. Cheniere also operates three trains at its Corpus Christi LNG terminal in Texas, the last of which was cleared for commercial service in late March. Cheniere executives have also said they are confident that the company will be able to reach a final investment decision in 2022 on a 10-Mt/y midscale train expansion at the Corpus Christi facility. Cheniere said in August that it needed to contract about another 4 Mt/y of LNG supplies to advance the stage-three expansion project to construction. The company has made progress toward that goal since then. On Oct. 11, Cheniere announced a 13-year supply agreement with China's ENN Natural Gas Co. Ltd. for about 0.9 Mt/y of LNG. |
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