Cheniere strikes long-term LNG supply deal with Canadian firm

Cheniere Marketing, a subsidiary of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer and exporter Cheniere Energy, has entered into a multi-year integrated production marketing (IPM) gas supply agreement with Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), a crude oil and natural gas production company.

The IPM agreement will see a subsidiary of Canadian Natural Resources Limited sell 140,000 million British thermal units (MMBtu) per day of natural gas to Cheniere Marketing for 15 years. The latter will be responsible for marketing the LNG associated with this deal, which amounts to around 0.85 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

Subject to the U.S. player making a positive final investment decision (FID) for the Sabine Pass Liquefaction expansion project, the deal is scheduled to start in 2030.

The six-train Sabine Pass facility, which has been in liquefaction mode since 2016, currently has a 30 mtpa LNG production capacity, processing over 4.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas into LNG, which is stored in five tanks.

As part of the Stage 5 expansion project, Cheniere proposes to boost this by adding two large-scale liquefaction trains, each with a nameplate capacity of approximately 7 mtpa and a maximum production capacity of approximately 8.43 mtpa.

The project also entails two full-containment, above-ground 220,000 cubic meter LNG storage tanks with loading capabilities.

Bechtel has been hired to complete a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study of the expansion project, and an application for the project has been filed with the FERC.

The Sabine Pass facility celebrated its 4,000th cargo shipment two months ago. This was accomplished in nine years, which Cheniere claims to be a record.