San Diego utility company Sempra Energy and Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui & Co. have entered into a memorandum of understanding to expand a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Louisiana and another in Baja California.
The two companies are part of a consortium building three liquefied natural gas production units during the first phase of development at the Cameron LNG export terminal in southwest Louisiana. Under the memorandum, the companies have agreed to help each other build two more production units as part of a phase 2 expansion.
Sempra and Mitsui also agreed to help each other develop an LNG export terminal at the already existing Energia Costa Azul import terminal along the Pacific Ocean south of Tijuana.
Mitsui has agreed to buy up to one-third of the available capacity for phase 2 of Cameron LNG. The Japanese company also agreed to buy up to 1 million tons of LNG per year and invest in the Energia Costa Azul expansion.
“This agreement signals continued momentum in the growing U.S. liquefied natural gas export market, while reinforcing the unique competitive advantage that Sempra offers customers seeking LNG export capabilities from the Gulf Coast, as well as the West Coast of North America,” Sempra LNG President Justin Bird said in a statement.
Cameron LNG sent out its first cargo in late May. The shipment was classified as a commissioning cargo, which is used to stabilize production and test the performance of equipment during an LNG plant’s startup process.
Sempra owns 50.2 percent of Cameron LNG. Its partners include French energy company Total, Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui & Co. and Japan LNG Investment — a joint venture between Mitsubishi Corp. and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha.
Federal regulators have given crews until September 2020 to complete the second and third production units at the Louisiana facility.
Once all three are in operation, Cameron LNG will be able to make nearly 12 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas per year.
Those production figures translate roughly to about 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, enough energy to power 8.5 million U.S. homes for a day.
