HOUSTON, March 12 (Reuters) – Top U.S. liquefied natural gas producer Cheniere plans on using electricity from the Texas grid at some of its LNG facilities, Robert Fee, the company’s vice president of international affairs and climate, said on Wednesday, a move that he said could reduce emissions.
Fee, speaking at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, added that the company was aware that doing so risks reducing reliability of its operations by placing facilities at the mercy of the grid.
Combined cycle gas turbines tend to be used in LNG plants to ensure there is sufficient reliable power. But using them can lead to higher facility emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
Reducing emissions from the LNG supply chain is important to the industry in part because big markets like the European Union are implementing emissions standards for their imports.
“Our Stage 3 facility is going to be electric-driven,” said Fee, referring to its expansion project at the Corpus Christi terminal in Texas.
Cheniere produced the first LNG at the 10 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) Stage 3 plant in December, but the facility remains under construction.
Cheniere has struggled to meet federal emissions limits for hazardous emissions from its existing gas-driven turbines at some of its operations in the past, according to Reuters reporting. In 2022, for example, the company asked the Environmental Protection Agency to exempt it from limits on emissions of some cancer-causing pollutants, arguing the rules could potentially impose significant costs and operational disruption.
Cheniere rival Freeport LNG, in contrast, operates a terminal in Texas that is totally electric-driven, but the second-largest U.S. LNG facility has been offline more any other plant in the country, according to LSEG data.
Cheniere’s Fee expressed confidence the company it could rely on the Texas grid to run the Stage 3 project, calling the power system robust.
He, however, added that the use of electric grids will not necessarily reduce the overall carbon footprint of LNG unless the electricity was generated from low-carbon sources.
The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of LNG and production of superchilled gas from Cheniere’s Stage 3 and Venture Global’s Plaquemines plants is expected to keep the U.S. as the top exporter of LNG in 2025. (Reporting by Curtis Williams; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)
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