Breaking news: US Cheniere Delays First LNG Exports until Feb/Mar

US Cheniere Energy does not expect its first cargo to leave its Sabine Pass liquefaction project until late February or March 2016, it said January 14. The first commissioning cargo was initially expected to occur by late January.

Construction for Train 1 was completed well ahead of the guaranteed contractual schedule and within budget. However, instrumentation issues were discovered during the final phases of plant commissioning and cool down that will require some additional work over the next few weeks, it said in a statement.

"We are now expecting the first cargo in late February or March," said Neal Shear, Interim President and CEO. "With construction of Train 1 finished, we remain well ahead of the guaranteed contractual schedule with Bechtel and anticipate no issues in meeting all contractual targets and guaranteed completion dates. Additionally, construction for Trains 2-5 continues to be on an accelerated schedule and these trains are expected to come on-line on a staggered basis. Bechtel will hand over care, custody and control of each train as they complete its scope of work."

According to Bechtel, "Bechtel has been continually working towards completing the first unit and working through a few items that will provide assurance to Cheniere Partners that plant reliability and performance will be as expected. These last few items are in final resolution and full LNG production is planned for late February 2016."

Cheniere Partners owns 100 percent of the Sabine Pass LNG terminal which includes existing infrastructure of five LNG storage tanks with capacity of 16.9 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe), two docks that can accommodate vessels with nominal capacity of up to 266,000 m³ and vaporizers with regasification capacity of about 4.0 Bcf/d.

Cheniere Partners has six third-party LNG sale and purchase agreements equating to 19.75mn metric tons/year of LNG. Each of the six trains has 4.5mn mt/year liquefaction capacity.