The Kinder Morgan Louisiana pipeline (KMLP) has applied for authorization to add bidirectional capacity to send gas to the Sabine Pass LNG export terminal starting in 2019, when the fifth liquefaction train comes on line.
The proposed $151mn Sabine Pass Expansion would provide 580mn cf/d (16.4mn m³/d) of firm north-to-south capacity on KMLP, which extends 132 miles (212km) from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron parish, southwestern Louisiana, to connections with various other pipelines in south-central Louisiana.
Houston-based Cheniere Energy, which owns Sabine Pass, has contracted for the planned southward capacity.
US midsteram company Kinder Morgan, which owns KMLP, asked the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week to approve the project by 28 February 2018, which would allow it to be placed in service by 1 April 2019. Train 5 at Sabine Pass is scheduled to start long-term service in August 2019, but would need to be tested for at least several months before that.
KMLP was placed in service in 2009 to send regasified LNG from the Sabine Pass import terminal northward to pipelines connected to major markets. But KMLP is now focusing on providing gas for LNG exports as the domestic shale gas boom has virtually eliminated the need for US LNG imports.
The expansion would allow Sabine Pass to receive gas from the Columbia Gulf Transmission, ANR and Texas Gas interstate pipeline systems, as well as from the Pine Prairie salt-cavern gas storage facility in Evangeline parish, Louisiana. Gas could come from producing basins throughout the country, as major trunk pipelines such as Columbia and ANR are installing bidirectional services to send gas from the Marcellus shale field centered in Pennsylvania to the Gulf coast.
The project would include compression and associated infrastructure to add bidirectional flow, as well as a small lateral to connect the KMLP to the Sabine Pass export facility.
US firm Chevron and France's Total each acquired half of the 2 Bcf/d of northward capacity on KMLP, but in 2014 and 2015 they exercised their rights to buy out of those virtually worthless contracts.
Cheniere has signed binding 20-year deals with Total and the UK's Centrica to finance construction of train 5. Total will buy up to 2mn t/yr of Sabine Pass LNG, equivalent to 278mn cf/d (7.9mnm³/d) of gas, when train 5 starts long term service, while Centrica would buy up to 1.75mn t/yr.
KMLP also would provide up to 1.35 Bcf/d of gas to the proposed Magnolia LNG export project near Lake Charles, Louisiana, but it is unclear if that facility will be built because it has not signed enough binding long-term capacity deals. The project has said the earliest it would need feed gas is 1 July 2019.
Cheniere is building five liquefaction trains at its $20bn Sabine Pass export facility, each with peak capacity of 5mn t/yr. Train 1 exported its first cargo on 24 February and train 2 in August. Train 3 is scheduled to start long-term service in June 2017 and train 4 in August 2017.
Cheniere will need about 3.75 Bcf/d of gas for the five trains at Sabine Pass. In addition to KMLP, gas would come from the Creole Trail and National Gas pipeline systems, which already feed trains 1 and 2, as well as Transcontinental pipeline.
