The first U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana is to reach Brazil, Meg Gentle, President of Marketing at Cheniere, announced Wednesday.
“We are loading the very first export from the Sabine Pass liquefaction during the last three days, to depart today for Brazil,” Gentle said, at the IHS Energy CERAWeek conference in Houston.
She referred to the cargo as “the vessel that will change the global gas market.”
Cheniere’s Sabine Pass project was first to acquire an LNG export permit in the U.S. It was authorized in 2012 to export LNG up to the equivalent of 2.2 billion cubic feet (66 million cubic meters) per day of natural gas for a period of 20 years.
The U.S. Energy Department announced on June 26 that it authorized Cheniere’s Sabine Pass project to export additional volumes of LNG, up to the equivalent of 1.38 billion cubic feet (41.4 million cubic meters) per day of natural gas for a period of 20 years.
With the latest approval, the project now has authorization to export LNG up to the equivalent of 3.58 billion cubic feet (107.4 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day for a period of 20 years.
Gentle said she believes the U.S. will become one of the top three LNG exporters in the world by 2020.
“The U.S. has one of the lowest cost of producing LNG [in the world],” she highlighted, and added that she forecasts LNG will constitute 15 percent of the global gas market by 2030.
