DOE said on March 20 that US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed an amendment order granting additional time to commence exports of U.S.-sourced natural gas as LNG from Sempra Energy’s Energía Costa Azul (ECA) mid-Scale project that is currently under construction in Baja California, Mexico.
The order grants ECA Liquefaction approximately six additional months to commence exports of LNG to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries.
DOE extened ECA LNG’s re-export commencement deadline for its non-free trade agreement (non-FTA) authorization, from March 29, 2026, to December 20, 2029
Moreover, DOE noted that the ECA mid-scale project began construction in 2020 and, once completed and operational, will be able to export up to 0.44 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas as LNG.
A second phase of the project is authorized to export up to 1.74 Bcf/d and is pending a final investment decision, it said.
“Construction at the ECA mid-Scale project is nearly complete and ECA expects to commence exports in the near future,” it said.
First LNG
Karen Sedgwick, Sempra’s executive VP and CFO, said in November last year that Sempra continues to expect first LNG production at the first phase of its ECA LNG project in the spring of 2026.
Sempra said in its recent financial report that it targets the commercial operations date (COD) for the project in the summer.
Sempra Infrastructure, a unit of Sempra in which the latter is reducing its ownership to 25 percent, and France’s TotalEnergies are adding natural gas liquefaction capabilities to the existing ECA LNG regasification terminal, located north of Ensenada in Mexico’s Baja California.
The partners took FID on the development back in 2020, and ECA LNG Phase 1 includes a single-train liquefaction facility with a nameplate capacity of 3.25 mtpa of LNG.
Also, TotalEnergies and Mitsui & Co will offtake a combined 2.5 mtpa of LNG from the facility under 20-year deals.
In August 2024, Sempra Infrastructure announced that its ECA LNG export project had experienced labor and productivity challenges.
Sempra said at the time that it expected mechanical completion and first LNG to occur in 2025, with the timing of commercial operations under the sales and purchase agreements targeted for spring 2026.
