Regulatory approvals in hand, construction and engineering firms notified, and financing commitments secured, Freeport LNG has told its construction firms to start building. That moved the project a momentous step closer to exporting LNG and—along with several LNG export projects currently in development—aimed at making the U.S. a major LNG exporter.

After Freeport LNG Expansion LP’s subsidiaries FLNG Liquefaction LLC and FLNG Liquefaction 2 LLC closed on about $11 billion in debt and equity financing in late November, nothing else stood in the project’s way. CB&I Inc. and Zachry Industrial Inc. were selected in December 2013 to carry out construction of the project, which received approvals for construction and LNG export from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Department of Energy earlier in November.

The three-train natural gas liquefaction and LNG loading facility is planned for Quintana Island near Freeport, Texas. Each liquefaction train has a nameplate design capacity of 4.64 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), and about 13.2 mtpa of the total capacity has been contracted under use-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreements.

Construction will begin on the first two trains, while the third train’s construction is scheduled to start during second-quarter 2015.

Freeport LNG “look[s] forward to completing a successful construction of the initial two trains and beginning commercial exports in 2018,” said Michael S. Smith, CEO, Freeport LNG, in a statement. The second liquefaction train is expected to commence operations five months after the first, and along with Cheniere Inc.’s Sabine Pass facility, which will already be operational, will amount to a Gulf Coast thriving on LNG exports.

“The project will drive substantial economic growth in Texas and across the United States, requiring a peak construction workforce of over 4,000 workers and 300 new full-time workers at the facility once in operation,” as well as 25,000 to 30,000 permanent new jobs upstream to support the project’s gas needs, Smith continued. “Exports from the Freeport LNG project offer substantial geopolitical benefits as well, providing secure energy supplies to our key allies around the world and resulting in more than a 1% reduction in the U.S. trade deficit.”

Caryn Livingston can be reached at clivingston@hartenergy.com or 713-260-6433.

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