Energy company Freeport LNG and Australian Macquarie Bank have agreed to build an export plant in Texas to export US-produced natural gas overseas.
The plant project, which would be able to export 1.4 billion cubic feet per day of gas by 2015, will cost about $2 billion and will be build on the site of Freeport LNG’s existing import terminal. Freeport LNG will operate the plant, with Macquarie contributing to development costs.
Macquarie and Freeport plan to jointly market half of the export plant’s capacity, with the other half being offered to Freeport’s existing import customers Dow Chemical and Conocophillips .
Freeport’s Texas facility opened in 2008 but is operating at less than its 2bn cu ft per day capacity. The project with Macquarie would add export capacity of up to 1.4bn cu ft per day.
