The first LNG cargo from the Sabine Pass facility has been delayed by at least a month, Texas-based Cheniere Energy stated in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

Cheniere’s LNG transport delay

HOUSTON, January 14, 2016 – The first LNG cargo from the Sabine Pass facility has been delayed by at least a month, Texas-based Cheniere Energy stated in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

The lag is due to instrumentation issues discovered in the final phases of plant commissioning. Work on the cooldown is expected to last a few weeks.

“With construction of train 1 finished, we … anticipate no issues in meeting all contractual targets and guaranteed completion dates,” said Cheniere’s interim president and CEO Neal Shear. He added that trains 2 to 5 are on an “accelerated schedule.” He expects the first cargo in late February or March.

Once all six trains are completed by 2018, the Sabine Pass facility is set to produce 4.5 million tonnes of LNG per year from each train. The project cost is at least USD 15 billion.

The shale gas boom may transform the US into one of the world’s foremost suppliers of LNG by the end of the decade, with exports of 220 mcm (7.76 bcf) of gas per day by 2019, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis predicted.

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