Freeport LNG

Image Source : Freeport LNG

Location : Quintana Island, Freeport, Texas, United States of America

In 2002, Freeport LNG Development, L.P. was established to construct an LNG import and regassification terminal at Quintana Island near Freeport, Southern Brazoria County, Texas. In 2008, shortly after the completion of the project, the US Oil & Gas industry experienced a dramatic turnaround in demand vs supply of natural gas, due to abundant supply of Shale Gas.¹The transformation of the facility for LNG export was permitted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in July 2014.

The project is spread out on 490 acres of land leased from Port Freeport, 400 acres of pre-treatment land and 650 acres of open land in the Brazosport Area.² With an investment of over $14 billion, the first 3 trains will have a liquefaction capacity of 13.9 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA). A Train 4 expansion project is currently in the Front-End Engineering and Design phase. Delays on account of hurricane Harvey coupled with contractor execution delays, have pushed the start date to mid-2019, with the 2^nd and 3^rd trains coming into operation in beginning and mid 2020 respectively.³

The fully operational plant is expected to consume two billion cubic feet of feed gas daily, through the interconnected intrastate pipeline systems.⁴ Sale contracts are already in place for a 20-year supply of 13.4 MMTPA of LNG to Osaka Gas, JERA (an alliance between Tokyo Electric and Chubu Electric), BP Energy, ENN Energy Holdings and SK E&S. Another 20-year contract is also in place to supply 2.2 MMTPA LNG from Train 4 to Sumitomo Corporation.⁵

Thousands of jobs have been generated during the construction phase, in addition to 200 new permanent jobs at the liquefaction plant. Freeport claims to contribute indirectly to 30,000 new jobs because of exploration and production of the feed gas supply. The company contributes to and works with various local civic and humanitarian organizations and has donated millions of dollars to support education, health, arts and sciences.⁶

Freeport asserts strong environmental stewardship, having given nearly 350 acres of land containing various types of habitat to conservation groups and created 35 acres of wetlands on Quintana Island.

Freeport LNG is only the second major LNG plant (Train capacity > 2 MMTPA) in the world and the first in the United States to have all-electric compressor drivers (eLNG concept) to mitigate emissions and reduce start-up time. When in operation, it is expected to be the largest electrical driven LNG plant in the world and the largest power consumer in the state of Texas.

OWNERSHIP (Equity %)

Train 1
Freeport LNG	NA
Chubu Electric	NA
Osaka Gas	NA
Train 2
Freeport LNG	NA
IFM Investors	NA
Train 3
Freeport LNG	100%
Train 4
Freeport LNG	100%

General Data

Estimated Capital Cost (USD)	5.65 billion (Train 1) 5.30 billion (Train 2) 4.65 billion (Train 3) TBA (Train 4)
Plant Type	Onshore Modular
Plant Stage	Under construction (Trains 1 to 3) Pre-FID / FEED (Train 4)
Final Investment Decision (FID) Year	2014 (Trains 1 & 2) 2015 (Train 3) 2019 (Train 4)
FEED Contractor	Trains 1 to 3: McDermott Zachry Group Train 4: McDermott (CB&I) Chiyoda Corporation Zachary Group
EPC Contractor	Trains 1 & 2: McDermott (CB&I) Zachry Group Trains 3 & 4: McDermott (CB&I) Chiyoda Corporation Zachary Group
No. of Trains / capacity	4 Trains / 4.64 MMTPA each
Production Start Year	2019 (Trains 1 & 2) 2020 (Train 3) 2024 (Train 4)
Products	LNG, Condensate
Gas Type	Shale

Technical Data

Cooling Media	Air
Liquefaction Technology	APCI AP-C3MR™
Refrigeration Train Details:
Propane String
Driver	GE Power 75 MW Synchronous Motor
Propane Compressor	3MCL1605 GE (Nuovo Pignone) Horizontally Split Centrifugal Compressor
Low Pressure (LP) Mixed Refrigerant (MR) String
Driver	GE Power 75 MW Synchronous Motor
LP MR Compressor	MCL1065 GE (Nuovo Pignone) Horizontally Split Centrifugal Compressor
Medium Pressure (MP) / High Pressure (HP) Mixed Refrigerant (MR) String
Driver	GE Power 75 MW Synchronous Motor
MP / HP MR Compressor	2BCL1007 GE (Nuovo Pignone) Radially Split Centrifugal Compressor

Refrigeration Train Configuration

Key Facts

Freeport LNG is only the second major LNG plant (Train capacity > 2 MMTPA) in the world and the first in the United States to have all-electric compressor drivers (eLNG concept). When in operation, it is expected to be the largest electrical driven LNG plant in the world.⁸
Each train has three 75 MW synchronous, 2-pole motors with LCI (Load Commutated Invertor) drives for variable speed operation.⁹
The motors are the largest size to be used in an LNG facility and a new motor frame was specifically designed by GE for the project.⁹
The large variable speed LCI drives and LCI harmonic filters necessitated the need for several studies including inter-harmonic studies and sub-synchronous torsional interaction (SSTI) studies. The installed system will include GE’s Torsional Vibration Control System (TVCS) which is used to measure torsional vibrations from the drive train and has an active damping system for real-time control of torsional stress on the train as well as a grid damping system for damping electrical feedback into the plant power system from the drives (to prevent SSTI events).⁹
Once all 3 trains are in operation, the Freeport LNG facility will become the largest power consumer in the state of Texas.¹⁰
It is the only LNG facility where the warm end (called the pretreatment facility or PTF) and the cold end (called the liquefaction facility or LQF) are separated by a substantial distance of almost 10 miles. The LQF is located on Quintana Island while the PTF is near Stratton Ridge. One of the drivers for the separation of the PTF and LQF was to limit greenhouse gas emissions on Quintana Island.¹¹
In April 2018, Freeport LNG announced a 9-month delay to the project commercial start date. Trains 1-3 were originally scheduled to start production from Q4 2018 through to Q2 2019. The new production start dates were moved out to Sept. 1, 2019 for Train 1 with Trains 2 and 3 coming online in Q1 and Q2 2020. The two main reasons cited for the delay were post hurricane Harvey flooding of lay-yards where equipment, including steel piping, was stored, as well as contractor execution delays.¹²
Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (CB&I), the prime contractor of the EPC consortium building Freeport LNG was acquired by McDermott International Inc. in May 2018. CB&I’s stock had collapsed in summer 2017, with the company announcing a USD 548 million write-down in August 2017 due to cost overruns on several projects.¹³
In November 2018, Toshiba Corp announced its plan to sell its US LNG business, including its Freeport LNG Contract, to Chinese gas firm ENN Energy Holdings. Toshiba is expected to post a loss of nearly $880 million from the sale.¹⁴