Bechtel is designing and building up to three liquefied natural gas trains and related facilities near Corpus Christi for a subsidiary of Cheniere Energy, Inc. This is the first greenfield LNG export facility in the United States.
The dramatic rise in U.S. production of natural gas and the surging energy demand worldwide make this project and others like it especially important to sustaining and enhancing economic development for nations around the world.
Bechtel has an extensive track record in building some of the largest LNG export production facilities in the world and is the EPC contractor on our LNG export project at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal. Bechtel built our existing regasification facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal on time and on budget, and is ahead of schedule on the four LNG trains currently under construction.
Charif Souki, Cheniere’s former chairman and CEO
What is LNG?
LNG is natural gas that's been compressed by refrigeration to a temperature of minus 258 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 161 degrees Celsius). The liquid occupies 600 times less space than natural gas in its gaseous state, making it practical to ship by ocean tanker. And it's stable and safe, because even though compressed in volume, the liquid remains at normal atmospheric pressure.
The Corpus Christi Liquefaction project includes
- a design production capacity of some 4.5 million metric tons per year of LNG
- three LNG storage tanks with capacity of more than 10 billion cubic feet equivalent
- two berths that can accommodate vessels with capacity of up to 267,000 cubic meters
Inside the project
The plan is to construct the complex in two stages:
- Stage 1 includes two LNG trains, two tanks, one complete berth, and a second partial berth.
- Stage 2 covers one LNG train, one additional tank, and completion of the second berth.
Bechtel is designing, constructing, and commissioning the LNG trains using the ConocoPhillips Optimized Cascade® process, a proven technology deployed in numerous LNG projects around the world. The process uses three refrigeration phases involving propane, ethylene, and methane to progressively cool the natural gas.
Bechtel first used the ConocoPhillips Optimized Cascade® LNG process in a liquefaction plant it built for Phillips Petroleum on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. The facility has continuously produced LNG for the Japanese market since 1969.