Kinder Morgan Inc’s request to start the service of the 10th liquefaction train located at Elba Island, Georgia had been accepted by the U.S Energy regulators. The export LNG plant is approximately valued at $2 billion and just sent its first export cargo less than a year ago. Earlier, Kinder Morgan announced its correspondence to the U.S Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on August 20 that train 7 would be ready for service on August 27. Trains 1-6 and 8-10 were available as train 10 had just entered service in August 2020 and Train 1 in October last year. Each train is qualified to liquify around 0.04 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas or 0.3 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG.
Elba’s first export cargo left in December 2019, but not exported a cargo since January this year since government's measures in trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus have drained the world’s energy demand. Elba owned 49% by EIG Global Energy Partners and 51% by Kinder Morgan, designed to liquefy LNG approximately 2.5 MTPA or around 0.350 bfcd of natural gas.
Royal Dutc Shell Plc is currently having a 20-year-contract in using the facility.
Including the under-construction project, the export capacity of U.S LNG is predicted to rise to 10.5 bcfd at the end of 2021 from current 9.8 bcfd and by the end of 2022, the capacity would be 12.5 bcfd. These plans will keep the country on track to reach the title of world’s top LNG exporter in 2024. By the end of 2019, the U.S had ranked third behind Qatar and Australia.
