US firm Sempra Energy has made a final investment decision on its LNG export terminal in Mexico. The terminal, called Energia Costa Azul (ECA), is the first liquefaction project to be approved this year. The FID only refers to ECA’s first phase, which will cost about $2 billion. ECA is expected to start up in late 2024 with a single liquefaction train which has a nameplate export capacity of 3.25 million tons/year. It is larger than the 2.5 million tons/year capacity that Sempra initially considered.
However, the terminal will have an initial offtake capacity of 2.5 million tons/year, Sempra said. This initial offtake consists of a 1.7 million tons/year deal with France’s Total and an 800,000 tons/year contract with Japan’s Mitsui. ECA will receive feedgas from shale plays in west Texas and New Mexico. Sempra plans to build two more trains with a combined liquefaction capacity of 12.4 million tons/year under ECA’s second phase. The expansion project will require additional pipeline capacities to transport feedgas from the US.
ECA will be the first LNG export terminal on the Pacific coast of North America. This strategic location is closer to demand centres in Asia. It also bypasses traffic and fees at the Panama Canal, unlike rivals in the US Gulf Coast.
