Coastal Bend LNG initiates pre-filing process with US regulators

Privately held Coastal Bend LNG announced this week that it had submitted a request to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to initiate the pre-filing review for its proposed liquefaction project on the Texas Gulf Coast.

This marks the start of the formal permitting process for the project, with Coastal Bend targeting early 2027 for filing its formal application with the FERC, which authorises the construction of LNG export terminals. LNG facilities also require licences from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to export LNG, with separate licences needed for exports to countries with which the US has free-trade agreements (FTAs) and those with which it does not.

According to the August 4 announcement, Coastal Bend LNG would comprise four liquefaction trains, each with a capacity of 4.8mn tonnes per year (tpy), for a total nameplate capacity of 19.2mn tpy. The proposed facility has been designed with integrated carbon capture facilities so that Coastal Bend LNG can contract transport and geological sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2), the company said.

The pre-filing request comes as LNG development on the Gulf Coast is booming and there has been concern that projects at the back of the queue may struggle to advance if the current wave of construction leads to a global glut of LNG. However, Coastal Bend executives expressed their confidence in their project’s potential in their announcement.

"Our location on the Texas Gulf Coast superimposes three geographic advantages not replicated elsewhere: direct connectivity to Texas’s abundant natural gas supplies, proximity to some of the world's most favourable geology for carbon sequestration, and the flexibility to serve both Asian and European markets with an emissions profile that meets the CLEAN initiative's transparency expectations and supports buyers’ compliance with the EU Methane Regulation,” stated Coastal Bend’s chief commercial officer, Keith Shoemaker.

There are other LNG projects under construction nearby, but the comments indicate Coastal Bend’s expectations that there is still more scope to build additional liquefaction capacity in the region.

Coastal Bend also noted that the latest milestone followed a series of others, including the selection of ConocoPhillips’ Optimized Cascade Process as the liquefaction technology for the project. In addition, KBR and Tecnicas Reunidas have been selected to be the front-end engineering and design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors.