Energy Transfer expects to reach a final investment decision (FID) early next year on its long-delayed 16.5mn t/yr Lake Charles LNG export plant in Louisiana, a company executive said today.
The project has sufficient offtake agreements in place but is working on financing, Amy Chen Davis, vice president of Lake Charles LNG, said Wednesday at Reuters' Energy Live conference in Houston, Texas.
The midstream firm earlier this year planned to reach an FID by the end of 2025 but extended the timeline as it works to finalize equity agreements. The project's construction contractor, a joint venture between KBR and Technip Energies, could receive a limited notice to proceed with preliminary work in "the next month or so", Davis said.
Nearly all of the project's offtake is contracted, with 11.9mn t/yr linked to binding agreements and the remaining volume set aside in a non-binding equity agreement with MidOcean Energy.
Energy Transfer co-chief executive Mackie McCrea told investors in November that Lake Charles LNG needed to sell 80pc of equity stakes before reaching an FID. A preliminary agreement with MidOcean, announced in April, includes a 30pc stake.
An FID in early 2026 would put the plant's in-service date in 2030. The engineering, procurement and construction contract with KBR and Technip was last refreshed in August and would not need an update if Energy Transfer reaches FID early next year, Davis said.
The company was proactive in ordering gas turbines last year, she said. LNG projects have had to compete with other projects, such as data centers with on-site power generation, for turbines, leading to backlogs.
Energy Transfer has sought for years to convert the existing Lake Charles import facility into an export terminal. Shell signed on with a 50pc stake in 2019 but pulled out the following year as part of cost-cutting measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
