Kinder Morgan's LNG plant at Elba Island, Ga. (Source: Google Earth)
Kinder Morgan Inc. asked U.S. energy regulators this week for permission to put in service the 10th and final liquefaction train at its nearly $2 billion Elba Island LNG export plant in Georgia.
Kinder Morgan said Train 7 would be ready for service on Aug. 27, according to a filing late Aug. 20 with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Trains 1-6 and 8-10 were already available, with Train 1 entering service in October 2019 and Train 10 in August 2020.
Each train is capable of liquefying about 0.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG or 0.04 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas.
The company has said it expects all 10 trains at the plant to be ready for service by the end of the summer.
The first export cargo from Elba left in December. Elba, however, has not exported a cargo since January as government steps to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus have sapped global energy demand.
Elba, which is 51% owned by units of Kinder Morgan and 49% by EIG Global Energy Partners, is designed to liquefy about 2.5 mtpa of LNG, equivalent to around 0.350 Bcf/d of natural gas.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc has a 20-year contract to use the facility.
Including projects under construction, U.S. LNG export capacity is expected to rise from 9.8 Bcf/d now to 10.5 Bcf/d by the end of 2021 and 12.5 Bcf/d by the end of 2022.
That keeps the United States on track to become the world’s biggest LNG exporter in 2024. It became the third-biggest exporter in 2019, behind Qatar and Australia.
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