Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) subsidiaries Elba Liquefaction Co. LLC (ELC) and Southern LNG Co. LLC received US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorization to build and operate the Elba Liquefaction Project at the existing Elba Island LNG terminal near Savannah, Ga. KMI expects the first of 10 liquefaction trains to enter service in second-quarter 2018, with the remaining nine coming online before yearend 2018. Total capacity will be 2.5 million tonnes/year.
Elba Express Co. LLC (EEC) and Southern Natural Gas Co. LLC (SNG), also KMI subsidiaries, received FERC certificates of public convenience and necessity for their EEC Modification Project and SNG Zone 3 Expansion Project. These projects include additional compression and related work for north-to-south capacity expansions on Elba Express pipeline to supply additional gas to industrial and utility customers in Georgia and Florida and to Elba Island for liquefaction. KMI expects the expansion to enter service late in this year’s fourth quarter.
The Elba Liquefaction Project in 2012 received authorization from the US Department of Energy to export to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries (OGJ Online, Jan. 28, 2013). An application to export to non-FTA countries is pending, but is not required for the project to move ahead.
A 20-year contract with Royal Dutch Shell PLC supports the roughly $2-billion liquefaction project. KMI last year bought 100% of Shell’s equity interest in ELC (OGJ Online, July 16, 2015). The pipeline modifications will cost $306 million.