The Texas LNG project is a multi-decade liquid natural gas shipping terminal project near Brownsville, Texas. It has been in the planning stages since the early 2010s and, as of 2019, gained regulatory authority approval for construction and operation in the 2020s, with initial export shipments as early as 2025. The facility is intended to enable US natural gas that is in good supply in the US to be efficiently stored and shipped to the global market in an efficient (liquified) form.
The Texas LNG LLC company of Houston, Texas completed environmental review and received a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2019. The company is expected to make the final investment decision on the project no earlier than 2021, and start construction on the project as early as 2022.[1]
Description
editThe project is intended, when fully built out circa 2030, to process up to 4 million tonnes of natural gas annually. Phase 1 of the project will process just half that, and could be operational as early as 2025. Phase 1 of the project will be able to process up to 300,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day (320,000 GJ/d).[2]
History
editThe United States has had a massive shift in LNG terminal planning and construction starting in 2010-2011 due to a rapid increase in US domestic natural gas supply with the widespread adoption of hydraulic fracking petroleum recovery technology. Many new LNG import terminals are planning or have begun addition of liquefaction facilities to operate as export terminals.
Texas LNG LLC obtained the project site at the Port of Brownsville in 2013 (on the north side of the Brownsville Ship Channel[3]), and completed conceptual design and preliminary engineering in 2014. The front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for the project was completed by Samsung Engineering in 2016.[1]
The final environmental impact statement was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March 2019.[2] On 21 November 2019, U.S. regulators approved the permit for Texas LNG LLC to build the facility, following an extensive environmental review. The specific approval was to build and operate the Texas LNG Brownsville LLC plant and shipping terminal at the Port of Brownsville.[4]
One month after approval, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups asked the FERC to reconsider the permits, saying the agency failed to adequately consider environmental impacts.[5][needs update]
As of 2020[update], the Texas LLC company was expected to make the final investment decision on the project no earlier than 2021, and start construction on the project as early as 2022, with the first phase of the project ready for commissioning by 2025. The second phase, with doubled capacity handling up to 600,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day (630,000 GJ/d), could commence operations no earlier than 2027.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c Texas LNG Project, Brownsville, Texas Archived 2020-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, nsenergybusiness.com, accessed 16 June 2020.
- ^ a b "Texas LNG's Brownsville LNG export plant passes environmental test". Reuters. 15 March 2019. Archived from the original on 16 June 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
- ^ [1]. Archived 2020-06-16 at the Wayback Machine Texas LNG -- Port of Brownsville
- ^ Chapa, Sergio (21 November 2019). "Feds approve permits for four LNG export projects in Texas". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
- ^ Chapa, Sergio (26 December 2019). "LNG opponents ask FERC to reconsider Brownsville permits". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2020.