The Federal Energy Regulation Commission has approved Sempra Energy’s request to begin commercial service of the first liquefaction train at its $10 billion Cameron liquefied natural gas export terminal in southwest Louisiana.
The Cameron Parish plant exported its first cargo in May, making it the fourth big LNG export terminal operating in the U.S. As Reuters reports, the facility has thus far exported four cargoes, according to data firm Refinitiv.
Natural gas use is growing fast around the world as countries wean their industrial and power sectors off coal as they seek cleaner forms of energy. Gas emits about half the carbon dioxide of coal when burned.
There are three liquefaction trains at Cameron. The first started producing LNG in mid May. Sempra has said it expects Cameron 2 and 3 will enter service in the first and second quarters of 2020.
Cameron is designed to produce about 12 million tons per year of LNG, or roughly 1.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to fuel about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.
