Freeport LNG’s Train 1 enters final commissioning stage

McDermott International said that Train 1 at the Freeport LNG plant on Quintana Island in Freeport, Texas, has reached the final commissioning stage.

This includes the introduction of feed gas into Train 1 of the natural gas liquefaction and LNG export facility, McDermott and its partners Chiyoda and Zachry said.

Commenting on the milestone, Mark Coscio, McDermott’s senior vice president for North, Central and South America, said, “once Train 1 is fully operational, it will have the capacity to produce more than 5 million tonnes of LNG per year.”

Zachry Group, as the joint venture lead, engaged McDermott for the pre-FEED in 2011, followed by FEED works to support the early development stage of the project.

Later Chiyoda joined the partnership and the joint team provided engineering, procurement and facility construction as well as commissioning and initial operations for the project.

The project includes three pre-treatment trains, a liquefaction facility with three trains, a second loading berth and a 165,000-cbm full containment LNG storage tank.

US LNG export terminal developer Freeport LNG has received approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the export of Train 4 volumes to non-free trade agreement countries, earlier in May.

Freeport LNG’s Train 4 is expected to add over 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG production to its existing project, increasing the total export capability of the four-train facility to over 20 mtpa.

Approximately 13.5 mtpa of this capacity was contracted under 20-year tolling agreements to Osaka Gas Trading & Export, JERA Energy America, BP, Total and SK E&S LNG, and approximately 0.5 mtpa was contracted to Trafigura PTE under a 3-year sale and purchase agreement beginning in 2020.