Partners make final investment decision on Cameron LNG project in US

Partners in the $10bn Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) project have made a final investment decision to move forward with the development in Louisiana, US.

The investment decision has been approved by project sponsors, Sempra LNG, GDF Suez, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, through a related company jointly established with Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK).

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Nippon Export and Investment Insurance and a group of 29 commercial banks will provide $7.4bn of financing commitments for the project.

Sempra LNG president Octavio MC Simoes said: "This represents one of the largest project financings in the US."

"Today’s commitments from our project sponsors and international banks put us one step closer to delivering domestic natural gas to America’s trading partners in Europe and Japan."

The project will involve the construction of three LNG liquefaction and export facilities at the existing LNG terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana.

Each facility is expected to have 12 million tonnes of annual export capacity from 2018.

The project received approval from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June 2014 to construct and operate the liquefaction facilities.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a conditional authorisation to export LNG to non-free-trade-agreement countries, including Japan and European nations.

A final authorisation from DOE is anticipated later in 2014.

Sempra Energy will hold 50.2% interest in the Cameron project while the three other partners will each have a 16.6% stake.

Construction on the project is expected to start later in 2014, with the first full year of operations planned in 2019.