Vienna (Platts)--29Jan2013/245 pm EST/1945 GMT

Construction of the Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana is running ahead of schedule, the president of Cheniere LNG International Jean Abiteboul told an industry conference in Vienna on Tuesday.

Most LNG projects -- particularly in Australia, although Angola LNG has given no explanation for its late start-up -- are experiencing cost-overruns and delays because of labor shortages and higher material prices.

"However, this is not the case in Louisiana," he said.

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"As of today, we are ahead of schedule, and in mid-[2015], we expect the first exports of LNG," he told the European Gas Conference.

The company had previously said LNG exports could start as early as 2015.

Engineering firm Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals will receive a bonus if it is completed early, he said.

"There is a high incentive for Bechel to be ahead of schedule," he said.

Cheniere is required to file a progress update every month with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under US law, he noted.

Cheniere has arranged financing for the first two trains, and is expecting to come to market to launch a bond to pay for the next two trains in due course. He neither confirmed nor denied that this could happen in the middle of this year.

Two further trains might also be built, Abiteboul said. French major Total has regasification capacity at Sabine Pass, dating back to the days when the US was expected to be a major LNG importer. But the option that Cheniere has with Total to build export capacity there is only for 2 million mt/year, not enough to underpin that train. Chevron also has regasification capacity there, and a similar deal to Total's is possible, Abiteboul said.

Cheniere's business model is to pass on all the price risk to its liquefaction capacity holders through tolling agreements which base the feedstock price directly on the Henry Hub price. He believes that the arrival of Henry Hub LNG will have a greater effect on world markets than might be expected from the relatively small volume.

In fact he said, it was already happening, as coal exports from the US are "virtual gas," as some coal was displaced as a power generation fuel in the US because of excess supply and low prices of gas.

--William Powell, newsdesk@platts.comVie
--Edited by Carla Bass, carla_bass@platts.com

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