Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC has awarded Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals, Inc. a lump sum turnkey contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the first two liquefaction trains at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, La., Sabine Liquefaction's parent company Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. announced Monday morning.

"Bechtel was chosen to develop and construct our liquefaction facilities due to their extensive LNG capabilities and experience in building some of the world's largest LNG production facilities," Charif Souki, Cheniere Partners' Chairman and CEO said in a written statement announcing the EPC contract. "Our trains are being designed with the best combination of efficiency, cost, and reliability, and with the turndown capability needed to provide flexible LNG delivery programs. We have worked with Bechtel in the past on the construction of our existing Sabine Pass LNG terminal, which was completed on time and on budget, and look forward to another successful project."

Sabine Liquefaction plans to construct liquefaction facilities capable of producing 9.0 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG in the first phase of its project. The Cheniere Partners subsidiary would then sell 7.0 mtpa of the production under long-term sales and purchase agreements (SPA). Last month, Cheniere Partners announced that Sabine Liquefaction has contracted one-half of this production under a long-term, 20-year SPA with customer BG Gulf Coast LNG, LLC. The company will make a final investment decision upon contracting the remaining 3.5 mtpa.

Once it achieves acceptable financing arrangements and obtains clearance to commence construction from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sabine Liquefaction plans to give Bechtel a notice to proceed with construction for the first phase.

Under the $3.9 billion EPC contract, Bechtel will design, construct and commission two liquefaction trains applying ConocoPhillips' Optimized Cascade technology, which has been deployed in several LNG projects around the world. The new trains will be built next to the existing facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal, which include five tanks with storage capacity of 16.9 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe), two docks that can handle vessels up to 265,000 cubic meters and vaporizers with regasification capacity of 4.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d).

Cheniere Partners estimates the total expected costs for the project before financing costs will be between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, including an estimated $600 million to $1 billion for owner's costs and contingencies. The project owner anticipates the construction phase to begin next year, and the facility could begin to export LNG cargoes as soon as 2015. The projected project timeline is as follows: