Washington (Platts)--20Jan2011/959 am EST/1459 GMT
Cheniere Energy Partners said Thursday it will enter into talks with EDF Trading that could lead the unit of France's EDF Group to contract for 1 billion to 2 billion cubic meters of annual bi-directional processing capacity at Cheniere's Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana. "We are pleased to announce the start of negotiations of definitive agreements with EDF Trading," Cheniere Chairman and CEO Charif Souki said in a statement. "Including this MOU we have entered into MOU's for up to approximately 6.2 [metric tons/year] of LNG processing capacity." Houston-based Cheniere, which owns the 4 Bcf/d LNG import terminal, in August applied to US authorities for permission to export gas produced in the Lower 48 states. In late November, the company said it signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Gas Natural Fenosa that could permit the Spanish company to buy as much as 1.5 million mt/year of processing capacity at Sabine. Earlier that month, Cheniere said it had signed similar MOUs with Morgan Stanley Capital Group that would permit Morgan to buy 1.7 million mt/year of import capacity and about 20% of the proposed liquefaction capacity at the terminal and with ENN Energy Trading China that could permit ENN to obtain 1.5 million mt/year of bi-directional processing capacity at Sabine Pass. Cheniere is proposed to build up to four modular LNG trains at the terminal, each with a peak processing capacity of as much as 700,000 Mcf/d and an average liquefaction processing capacity of approximately 3.5 mt/year. Assuming the company received necessary regulatory permits and decided to move forward with the project, it said LNG exports could begin as early as 2015. The US Department of Energy has approved Cheniere's request to export LNG to Free Trade Agreement countries, but is still considering the company's request to export to other countries. Cheniere also has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to build the liquefaction facility. FERC in October said it plans to begin an environmental review of the project.--Jeff Barber, jeff_barber@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Gas Daily. See more information at http://bit.ly/GasDaily