The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved Golden Pass LNG's request to commission the second train at its 18.1mn t/yr (2.4bn ft³/d) export terminal in southeast Texas.
FERC on Wednesday approved a request from Golden Pass, a joint venture between QatarEnergy (QE) and ExxonMobil, to begin preliminary commissioning activities on train 2. The agency issued the order just two days after Golden Pass filed its request.
But the train is likely still months away from producing LNG. FERC will oversee and sign off on subsequent steps for train 2's commissioning.
Train 1 began producing LNG about 4.5 months after FERC authorized Golden Pass to run fuel gas into train 1's systems in mid-November. Golden Pass then exported its first shipment, which likely included some of its imported cool-down cargo, on 22 April. Wednesday's order did not include authorization to feed fuel gas into train 2 or permission to run gas through any of train 2's equipment.
The first train has gradually ramped up, albeit not linearly, since it began producing LNG in March. Golden Pass has exported just two cargoes, mostly recently on 9 May. QE's 174,000m³ Al Na'amah arrived on Tuesday, the same day feedgas to Golden Pass hit a record-high 577mn ft³, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and pipeline data from Golden Pass. This comes after the same-sized QE vessel Barzan arrived on 8 June but departed two days later, apparently without loading. That ship is now holding offshore the Texas-Louisiana coast.
Feedgas receipts at Golden Pass have stabilized after a period of scheduled maintenance in May and fluctuations in early June. The terminal received about 380mn ft³/d of gas over 14-23 June, about 48pc of train 1's capacity, up from about 80mn ft³/d over the previous 10-day period, according to pipeline data.
