Port Arthur LNG steps closer to commissioning start

Market: Natural gas
31/08/26

Sempra Infrastructure is moving closer to preliminary commissioning work at its 27mn t/yr (3.6bn ft³/d) Port Arthur LNG export terminal in southeast Texas ahead of an anticipated startup in 2027.

Port Arthur LNG and contractor Bechtel plan to test the terminal's diesel-powered water pumps from 30 August-4 September, an action that is "required for the initial commissioning" of the first liquefaction train, according to an emissions filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Sempra and Bechtel began constructing the two-train, 13.5mn t/yr first phase of Port Arthur in 2023, with the trains expected to begin service in 2027 and 2028, respectively. Sempra greenlit a 13.5mn t/yr second phase in September 2025 that includes trains 3 and 4, which it expects to complete in 2030-2031.

Train 1's ramp-up could begin in the fourth quarter. Sempra has a pending request with the US Department of Energy from May, seeking a two-year window to re-export imported cool-down cargoes of LNG "as early as practicable, but no later than 1 October". Sempra would use the cool-down cargo to chill and help commission train 1 as it works toward production.

Port Arthur's first train is part of about 25mn t/yr of new capacity that US operators are expected to bring on line in 2027, alongside trains 2-3 at the nearby 18.1mn t/yr Golden Pass LNG and the 6mn t/yr train 1 from Rio Grande LNG in south Texas.

Port Arthur LNG has not yet received any feedgas from its 2bn ft³/d Louisiana Connector pipeline. But Sempra has been sending gas to the 16.5bn ft³ LA Storage Hackberry facility, which the Louisiana Connector links to Port Arthur LNG. The underground salt-cavern storage facility has taken a total of 1.3bn ft³ of gas since it began receiving small volumes on 22 July, pipeline data show.

The underground site is an outlier among US LNG export terminals, as other operators have on-site LNG storage tanks but do not oversee underground gas storage. Port Arthur LNG will have both, with a total of three 160,000m³ LNG storage tanks on-site each capable of holding a 72,000t cargo and the 16.5bn ft³ gas storage site about 35 miles to the east in southwest Louisiana, capable of holding the equivalent of five LNG cargoes.

By Tray Swanson

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