Magnolia LNG Terminal

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Magnolia LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG export terminal in Louisiana, United States.

Location

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Project Details

Phase 1

• Operator: Magnolia LNG Holdings
• Operator: LNG Ltd
• Owner: Glenfarne Group
• Location: Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States
• Coordinates: 30.105668, -93.300819 (exact)
• Type: Export
• Trains: 2
• Capacity: 4.4 mtpa (2.2 mtpa per train)
• Status: Proposed
• FID Status: Pre-FID (2023)
• Type: Export
• Start Year: 2027
  • Formerly 2026

Phase 2

• Operator: Magnolia LNG Holdings
• Operator: LNG Ltd
• Owner: Glenfarne Group
• Location: Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States
• Coordinates: 30.105668, -93.300819 (exact)
• Type: Export
• Trains: 2
• Capacity: 4.4 mtpa (2.2 mtpa per train)
• Status: Proposed
• Type: Export
• Start Year: 2026

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Magnolia LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG export terminal in Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana, United States. Magnolia LNG received its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permitting in April of 2016, which authorized the project's construction and operation. In March 2017, Magnolia LNG announced that the start of construction depends on finalizing the ground lease where the property is cited. Parent Company, LNG Limited, went on to explain that the timing of the project's final investment decision (FID) and construction start dates depend on the finalization of offtake agreements.

Although the project has been slow to develop, in March of 2019, authorization was granted from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for expansion of export capacity to 8.8 mtpa (from 8.0 mtpa) to free trade agreement countries, suggesting that the project is still underway.

In September 2020, under the new ownership of the private US investment firm Glenfarne Group, Magnolia LNG asked FERC for another five years – out to April 2026 – to complete the project and associated facilities that would supply the terminal. In its request the company stated: "Unforeseeable developments in the global LNG market have affected Magnolia LNG's ability to enter into long-term LNG offtake contracts with international customers, which are critical to securing project financing and achieving FID ... A short-term over-supply across the global LNG market, coupled with disruptions in the China-United States LNG trade and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have delayed these offtake contracts and further delayed FID for the project."

At the Gastech conference in September 2021, Glenfarne Group's Project Director John Baguley told reporters that the project's FID was further delayed, probably out to the end of 2023.

In April 2022, the Biden Administration authorized additional exports of 0.15 Bcf/day (1.1 mtpa) from the proposed Magnolia LNG facility. It was reported that month that Glenfarne was considering taking FID in 2022.

In April 2023, Glenfarne said that it expected to take FID on the project in 2023, with first gas produced in 2027.

In December 2023, Magnolia LNG filed for a new export authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Magnolia LNG had previously withdrawn its existing export authorization after DOE announced that it would not issue extensions to in most cases. Sierra Club said that it and other local and national organizations had successfully challenged Magnolia LNG's application, with DOE agreeing that Magnolia LNG should be subject to this policy.

Financing

It emerged in late March 2020 that the project is in financial jeopardy and could be liquidated due to factors exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Bridge financing, to permit the Australian promoter LNG Limited to continue operating until a proposed US$75 million takeover by a Singaporean investor takes place, fell through in March, leaving the company scrambling to arrange short-term financing after First Wall Street Capital Corp. pulled out of a finance package agreement. Magnolia LNG does not have any confirmed offtake agreements with LNG importers and efforts to secure these are being directly hampered by the coronavirus as well as by deteriorating LNG market conditions which the global pandemic has made worse.

In May 2020, further doubt was cast on the project following the announcement that LNG Limited's mounting financial problems had resulted in the calling in of administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers to review the company's assets, as well as the resignation of four LNG Limited directors. On May 12, 2020, it was announced that LNG Limited had sold the undeveloped Magnolia LNG terminal to Global Energy Megatrend Limited, an LNG company incorporated in London, U.K. but with its headquarters in Lafayette, Louisiana, in a US$2.25 million deal. Global Energy Megatrend is an integrated natural gas company that has been leasing U.S. natural gas fields and investing in pipelines that lead to Louisiana ports and LNG export terminals. In June 2020, it was reported that the deal with Global Energy Megatrend had fallen through and that Magnolia LNG Holdings, owned by the New York based Glenfarne Group, had bought the project in a US$2 million deal.

In August 2020, Vietnam's Delta Offshore Energy announced that it would not be renewing a Memorandum of Understanding it had signed with LNG Limited in January 2020 for the purchase of 2 mtpa from the project, which was to be used to supply Vietnam's Bac Lieu LNG-to-power project.