A massive liquified natural gas facility that a subsidiary of San Diego-based energy giant Sempra is building on the Gulf Coast of Texas received a long-awaited permit from the federal government on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced that the second phase of the Port Arthur LNG project obtained approval to export liquified natural gas, or LNG, to countries without free trade agreements with the United States.
The authorization was the last regulatory hurdle the project needed to clear and comes after the Biden istration in early 2024 had placed an industry-wide pause on approving new LNG projects in order to review their climate impacts.
Immediately after his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump took the opposite tack, issuing an executive order called “Unleashing American Energy” that included directing the U.S. Department of Energy to restart LNG reviews “as expeditiously as possible.”
Since then, a number of LNG projects have moved forward, with Thursday’s announcement being the latest.
“Port Arthur LNG Phase II marks a significant expansion of the first phase already under construction — turning more of the liquid gold beneath our feet into energy security for the American people,” Wright said in a news release.
“Today’s regulatory approval marks another milestone” for the Port Arthur project, said Justin Bird, CEO of Sempra Infrastructure, the Houston-based subsidiary of Fortune 500 parent company Sempra.
Already under construction, the first phase at Port Arthur is expected to include two liquefaction trains, or production units, that would be capable of producing approximately 13 million metric tons per year of LNG. The expansion plans for the second phase is anticipated to double that amount.
The first train is expected to be completed in 2027.
“The project can be a key contributor to further establishing the U.S. as a leader in global energy markets, ing U.S. trade goals and providing economic opportunity at the local, state and national levels in the U.S.,” Bird said in a statement.
Port Arthur LNG is a $13 billion t venture between Sempra Infrastructure and ConocoPhillips to take natural gas, liquefy it and place it onto specially designed cargo ships that export the gas to destinations around the world.
LNG has been a growth market for U.S. companies because many foreign countries are eager to replace coal in their power systems with natural gas, which burns cleaner. But environmental groups oppose exports because of the amount of methane emitted by natural gas. They also say LNG extends the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Sempra Infrastructure has quickly established itself as one of the leaders in the LNG industry.
The company is the majority partner in another project, the $10.5 billion Cameron LNG facility on the coast of Louisiana. It opened in August 2020 and has plans to expand capacity to as much as 21.7 million metric tons per year.
Sempra Infrastructure is also adding an export component to an existing LNG terminal near Ensenada, Mexico, called Energía Costa Azul. Earlier this month, company officials said the $2 billion project is 92% complete. It’s expected to be finished by spring of 2026.
The Baja California project is expected to be a big money-maker since the facility, facing the Pacific, can deliver cargoes to LNG markets in Asia in about half the time it takes for rivals whose facilities are concentrated on the Gulf Coast. In addition, Asian-bound cargoes from Energía Costa Azul don’t have to go through the Panama Canal, saving money on tolls.
