In a story eariler this week by Reuters, the Co-founder of U.S. LNG developer Tellurian suggested that the company intends to begin construction this summer of its $16.8 billion Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana.
"I hope that we will be in construction this summer,” said Charif Souki, co-founder and executive chairman of Tellurian. "There is a strong need for additional liquefaction capacity and we’re probably the project that is the closest to starting construction."
The Project was approved by regulators approx 1 year ago.
Demand for liquefied natural gas has soared in recent years as countries like China and India shift power generation away from dirtier coal-fired plants.
Meanwhile, prices for the fuel and shipping fees have soared due to cold weather in Asia and bottlenecked shipments at the Panama Canal.
"The level of (customer) interest has increased pretty dramatically over the past month," Souki said.
The Driftwood LNG Project
From their official website, Driftwood LNG LLC, owned by Tellurian Inc., is developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and export terminal on the west bank of the Calcasieu River, south of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Once complete, the terminal will be able to export up to twenty-seven million, six hundred thousand tonnes of LNG per year to customers worldwide."
Job Creation
According the the company website, "Driftwood LNG will create approximately ~6,500 construction jobs, and ~400 operational jobs."
Presently, the Drfitwood LNG website careers page only shows 1 available position.
Timelines
The Reuters story suggests that the first phase of Driftwood is slated for operation in 2025, and will produce about 16.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, equivalent to about 2.2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.
One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about five million homes for a day.
