Elba Liquefaction Company (ELC) and Southern LNG Company (SLNG), both subsidiaries of Kinder Morgan, have received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Elba Liquefaction Project.

The USD 2 billion project will be constructed and operated at the existing Elba Island LNG Terminal near Savannah, Georgia. Under the proposal, the first of 10 liquefaction units is expected to be placed in service in the second quarter of 2018, with the remaining nine units coming online before the end of 2018. This project is supported by a 20-year contract with Shell.

KMI also announced that it has received from FERC Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity for the EEC Modification Project and SNG Zone 3 Expansion Project, respectively.

Together these projects total USD 306 million and include additional compression and related work for north-to-south capacity expansions on Elba Express Pipeline that will supply additional gas to industrials and utilities in Georgia and Florida and to Elba Island for liquefaction.

Facilities for these pipeline projects are expected to be placed in service late in the fourth quarter of 2016.

In 2012, the Elba Liquefaction Project was cleared by the Department of Energy to export to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries. An application to export to non-FTA countries is pending, but is not required for the project to move ahead.

The liquefaction project is expected to have a total capacity of approximately 2.5 million tonnes per year of LNG for export, equivalent to approximately 350,000 Mcf per day of natural gas.