Expansion of Texas LNG plant is ahead of schedule to be
completed this year.

 

WHAT: Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi plant has produced first
LNG from Train 6 in its stage expansion of the Texas Gulf
facility.

WHY: Cheniere has been keen to keep construction moving forward
on the facility particularly as LNG prices have soared amid
increased demand following the sidelining of LNG from Qatar in the
Middle East conflict

WHAT NEXT: Construction of Train 7 is also ahead of schedule and
expected to complete the expansion stage before the end of the
year.

 

Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi Stage 3 expansion has taken
another major step forward with the Houston, Texas-based company
announcing that it has produced first LNG at Train 6,
Reuters reported on May 19.

Construction by US engineering firm Bechtel is ahead of schedule
with only one more liquefaction unit left, which is expected to be
finished before the end of the year. The addition of seven midscale
liquefaction trains will add another 10 mn tonnes per year (tpy) of
liquefaction capacity, with each midscale unit having a capacity of
1.43 mn tpy.

Once Stage 3 of the expansion project is finished, the Gulf
Coast facility will become the US’s second largest LNG facility
with a production capacity of 25mn tpy, trailing only Cheniere’s
Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana, which has a nameplate capacity
of 30 mn tpy. With a current total production capacity of 53mn tpy,
Cheniere is currently the US’s largest LNG developer followed by
Venture Global.

Cheniere’s ability to not only keep Stage 3 of the expansion
project on schedule, but even ahead of timelines is a tremendous
achievement. The company has also been able to avoid cost overruns,
which have plagued other LNG projects including, Venture Global’s
Plaquemines plant and CP2 facility, ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy’s joint project
Golden Pass LNG, and Canada’s Woodfibre LNG.

The rising cost of skilled labour in the Gulf Coast, inflation,
and supply chain challenges have been the key factors behind the
ballooning costs of recent LNG projects.

For Cheniere, the ability to ramp up LNG production urgently is
a major boon for the company as it seeks to cash in on sky-high LNG
prices on the spot market amid tremendous volatility in gas prices
sparked by the conflict in the Middle East between the US, Israel,
and Iran.

While the conflict erupted in late February and Iran immediately
blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, sidelining deliveries from Qatar
and the United Arab Emirates which account for about 17% of global LNG supply. Currently, only limited shipping traffic has returned as Tehran has only
granted safe passage for a handful of LNG tankers, keeping spot
market prices high.

The sky-high LNG prices in the global market come at a time when
Cheniere was already ramping up production. During the first
quarter, Cheniere shipped a record 187 cargoes from its two LNG plants, with that number expected
to grow further in the second quarter with Corpus Christi’s Train
Six now producing the super-chilled fuel.

In the wake of the Middle East conflict, Cheniere said at its
first-quarter earnings call that it was raising its consolidated,
adjusted EBITDA guidance for the whole of 2026 to $7.25-7.75 bn,
from $6.75-7.25 bn previously. As well, the firm revealed it was
also raising its guidance for the year for discounted cash flow
(DCF) to $4.75-5.25 bn, from $4.35-4.85 bn previously. Driving this
adjusted outlook is a 1mn tonne production guidance increase for
the year.

Meanwhile, Cheniere continues to push ahead with further
expansion. In June 2025, the company took a final investment decision (FID) on two more midscale
liquefaction trains at the Corpus Christi facility, which will give
the plant nine midscale liquefaction units. Bechtel will again
carry out construction duties.

These two additional units are expected to be completed by 2028,
at which time Cheniere will boast a production capacity of 60 mn
tpy, in part also due to debottlenecking existing trains.

Moreover, Cheniere also has designs of adding additional
liquefaction trains to both Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi to raise
production capacity to 75mn tpy by the early 2030s. However,
despite this expansion, the company is likely to be surpassed by
Venture Global by this time, as the Arlington, Virginia-based
company continues its breakneck pace of expansion.

In February, Cheniere submitted an application to federal
regulators for authorisation of Stage 4 of the Corpus Christi
facility. The company is hopeful that the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) will give the project the green light by May
2027.

The Stage 4 expansion would increase the facility’s production
capacity by 24 mn tpy, but is not likely to come online until the
mid-2030s. Cheniere is celebrating its 10th year of operation,
after its Sabine Pass facility became the first US LNG plant in the
lower 48 states to export a cargo of the super-chilled fuel.

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