Green light for LNG project on US Gulf Coast to embark on pre-filing process

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given its blessing to Gulfstream LNG Development (Gulfstream LNG), a mid-sized greenfield liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project under development in Louisiana, United States (U.S.), to kick off the pre-filing permitting process, setting off the regulatory review for the proposed 4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) modular export facility.

This milestone for the onshore greenfield LNG export project under development in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, south of New Orleans, comes after the closing of Gulfstream LNG’s initial seed funding round and its move to a nearby downstream site on the same side of the Mississippi River as its previously disclosed location.

The project received a stamp of approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in July 2023 to export produced LNG to all existing and future countries with a free trade agreement (FTA) in place with the U.S. With over three kilometers of deepwater Mississippi River frontage, the upgraded 418-acre site is secured under a long-term 50+ year lease agreement with a private landowner.

According to Gulfstream LNG, the site is traversed by a 26” natural gas pipeline that will supply, as per an executed agreement with the pipeline operator, the full volume of feed gas required for the operation of the project facility at its nameplate capacity.

The project is perceived to stand out as the first greenfield or non-expansion LNG project in the U.S. onshore permitting process since 2019, based on the analysis of LNG facility maps on the FERC website. This is perceived as a confirmation of Gulfstream LNG’s view that it has secured one of the last remaining permittable LNG export project sites on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Vivek Chandra, CEO and Founder of Gulfstream LNG, commented: “We are pleased to have completed this important step in the permitting process and thank FERC for their timely review of our prefiling application. This follows on the receipt of the Department of Energy (DoE) export permit for Free Trade Area nations.”

Furthermore, the project risk is believed to have been further reduced over the past year by selecting technical partners, including Baker Hughes as the liquefaction equipment provider, Honeywell UOP to provide its gas treatment technology, GTT to provide LNG tank technology and containment system, and Kiewit Energy Group to provide engineering, procurement, and construction support.

As a result, the support these providers will offer alongside Greenberg Traurig, a global law firm, and Waldemar S. Nelson and Company, a New Orleans-based engineering and permitting consulting firm, is expected to enable Gulfstream LNG to provide project-specific information and process unit parameters required for the FERC process and front-end engineering design (FEED) on a timely and cost-efficient basis.

While Gulfstream LNG is looking into various CO2 capture, use, and storage options to reduce its Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 emissions, the project facilities will include two trains for gas processing, three electric-drive liquefaction trains each with an average base LNG production capacity of approximately 1.4 mtpa, one 200,000 m3 LNG storage tank and tank protection system, two marine loading berths – one capable of receiving smaller barges and vessels and one for servicing larger ocean-going LNG carriers – and an on-site gas-fired power generation plant.

“Though the administration’s pause in the review of DoE non-FTA permits does not directly impact Gulfstream LNG because of our stage in the FERC process, we encourage the US government to complete their evaluation as soon as possible. Export permit delays add uncertainty to project development, impact the global energy transition, and encourage the continued usage of coal and other dirty fuels,” added Chandra.

The project start-up, anticipated in less than six years, is expected to coincide with a forecasted shortfall in global LNG supply exacerbated by recent geopolitical events and natural production declines in many legacy facilities.

Gulfstream LNG is contemplating multiple commercial business models, including tolling by offtake customers, upstream gas producers, and FOB sales. This project plans to supply domestic, regional, and international LNG markets via river barges, small ships, bunkering vessels, and large tanker exports under long-term contracts.

Gulfstream LNG claims to be focused on speed to production and supporting the global energy transition by providing “affordable low-carbon LNG to markets currently dominated by coal, petroleum products, and other higher-carbon fuels.”