DOE Conditionally Approves Cheniere’s LNG Export Application for Non-FTA Countries
Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy approved Cheniere Energy’s application to export U.S. domestic gas as LNG via the Sabine Pass LNG terminal to countries with which the United States does not already have a free trade agreement in place. DOE determined that “opponents of the application have not demonstrated that a conditional grant of the requested authorization for a term of 20 years would be inconsistent with the public interest.” The authorization is conditioned on, among other things, completion of environmental reviews for adding liquefaction facilities, semi-annual reports to DOE on the same, and express contractual prohibitions on exporting LNG to destinations restricted by U.S. law or policy. The authorization is available in DOE Docket No. 10-111-LNG. Reuters provides additional coverage.