Cheniere LNG Train 'Hit By Liquids': Source

Cheniere might have had to take an LNG train at Sabine Pass out of action immediately on completion because it might need modifying to deal with natural gas liquids (NGLs), an LNG industry source has told NGW. 

The low cost of NGLs makes it uneconomic to remove them from the production stream and so they enter the US gas grid and mingle with other gas of different compositions. But the tolerance range of the grid is relatively wide, where NGLs are concerned, said the source, and Cheniere cannot specify a narrower tolerance when it takes the gas out.

The plant would have been built to accept and liquefy a range of gas qualities, but the wider the range, the more it costs, an engineering source said. Without claiming knowledge of this case but speaking generally, he said that if too much gas consistently came through that was at the upper end of the acceptable range for liquids then there could be a build-up of hydrates – frozen liquids – in the system; NGLs freeze at a higher temperature than that needed to liquefy gas. At the time the plant was designed, it might have been assumed that most NGLs would be removed from the gas stream at the point of production, for separate sale.

A vessel loading at the Sabine Pass terminal

(Source: Cheniere)

Cheniere has declined to comment to NGW on whether liquids were a problem that it had not foreseen when drawing up the specifications. It said last week that commissioning work on the second train "has been completed and Cheniere Partners' EPC partner Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals is handing over control to Cheniere Partners in co-ordination with a previously announced planned outage to improve performance of the flare systems as well as to perform scheduled maintenance to Train 1 and other facilities." Train 1 came on a few months later than expected owing to 'instrumentation' problems.  

Last week Cheniere said its wholly-owned subsidiary Sabine Pass Liquefaction had "upsized and priced its previously announced offering of senior secured notes due 2027 from the initially announced $1.0bn to $1.5bn." 

Six plants are planned in total at Sabine Pass, each of 4.5mn mt/yr nameplate capacity. Sabine Pass train 3 is undergoing commissioning; trains 4 and 5 are under construction; and train 6 is fully permitted, Cheniere said last week.

William Powell