Here's when Cheniere's Corpus Christi Liquefaction facility will open

Tim Acosta | Corpus Christi

Show Caption Hide Caption Cheniere proposing expansion of Corpus Christi Liquefaction Cheniere Energy Inc., which does business locally as Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC, is looking to increase the annual capacity of its area facility from 13.5 million tons of natural gas to 22.5 million tons.

Texas is about to join the global liquefied natural gas market in force, and it all begins in San Patricio County.

Cheniere Energy Inc. will hold a grand opening celebration of its Corpus Christi Liquefaction facility in Gregory Thursday morning, ending years of work to bring the massive $15 billion facility online. The company will celebrate the first shipment of LNG traveling out of the plant after the ceremony concludes, officially putting it and the Port of Corpus Christi in play in the global LNG market.

Gov. Greg Abbott will attend Thursday's event, along with several other elected officials. The plant sits on over 1,000 acres of land owned or controlled by Cheniere on the La Quinta Channel, on the northeast side of Corpus Christi Bay in San Patricio County.

The LNG cargo will be produced from Corpus Christi Liquefaction's first of three LNG trains being constructed at the facility. That first train should be substantially complete early next year, Cheniere President and CEO Jack Fusco said in a Nov. 8 webcast to announce the company's third quarter earnings.

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The second train is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2019, Fusco said, with that third phase tentatively set to be complete in late 2021.

The trains are facilities that operate independently to produce liquefied natural gas, and are being built by San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. Each will be capable of producing 4.5 million tons annually at full capacity, company officials have said.

The company has already signed a number of long-term sale and purchase agreements over the past several months with international companies to supply millions of tons of LNG via the Corpus Christi Liquefaction facility over the life of those agreements.