Sempra Infrastructure of the US has reached a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with UK-based chemicals and energy supplier Ineos for as much as 1.6 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas from its planned export facility at Port Arthur, Texas.
The US company on Thursday said Ineos had agreed to buy 1.4 million tpa of LNG for 20 years from phase one of the Port Arthur LNG project on the Texas Gulf Coast, which is due online in 2027.
The two companies also signed a non-binding heads of agreement for Ineos to buy an additional 200,000 tpa from Port Arthur LNG phase two, which is already under development.
Originally due online by 2024, Port Arthur LNG has all necessary federal and state regulatory approvals but remains on the drawing board.
However, US giant ConocoPhillips has bought a 30% stake in the project and has entered into a long-term agreement to purchase as much as 5 million tpa from the scheme’s first phase.
Sempra has also finalised a deal with Bechtel on an engineering, procurement and construction project for phase one, with the final investment decision anticipated in the first quarter of 2023.
When complete, Port Arthur phase one is expected to have two liquefaction trains and LNG storage tanks with the ability to produce as much as 13.5 million tpa of LNG.
If phase two moves ahead, the project’s capacity is expected to double.
“We are excited to finalise our commercial relationship with Ineos as a valued long-term LNG off-taker from the Port Arthur LNG phase one development project,” said Sempra chief executive Justin Bird
“We look forward to advancing this project so we can begin delivering new supplies of US LNG to our European partners, as they pursue more secure energy for their customers.”
Ineos chief executive David Bucknall said he was pleased to reach an agreement that will expand his company’s access to increasingly important US LNG supplies.
“This agreement is a critical part of our new global LNG supply chain that will enable us to deliver cleaner and reliable energy to our businesses and customers,” he said.
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