Magnolia LNG seeks more time to build Lake Charles LNG plant

(The Center Square) – A Louisiana facility that would export liquefied natural gas needs more time to finish construction and begin operations, its owner says.New York-based Glenfarne Energy is asking U.S. regulators for a five-year extension on an April deadline to complete the facility in Calcasieu Parish. In a Jan. 15 filing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Glenfarne and project partner Kinder Morgan cited “unprecedented delays” at the Department of Energy and regulatory uncertainty during the Biden administration as the primary reasons for the delay.Originally approved in 2016, the Magnolia LNG export plant would be built on a 115-acre site along the Industrial Canal near Lake Charles. An initial five-year extension was granted in October 2020 due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Glenfarne said in the filing.Construction has not started, and the newest extension sought by the companies would allow operations to begin as late as April 2031.Magnolia LNG currently lacks the required authorization to export to non-Free Trade Agreement countries. The previous authorization expired in November 2023 after a request for an extension was withdrawn due to a more stringent Department of Energy policy, Glenfarne said in the filing. A new application filed in late 2023 remains pending.Glenfarne is also actively developing LNG export facilities in Texas and Alaska. The company will make a final investment decision in early 2026 on Texas LNG, an export plant that would be built at the Port of Brownsville with annual productive capacity of about 4 million tons of liquefied gas per year.The company expects to make a final investment decision in 2026 on an LNG export plant in Alaska with 20 million tons of capacity. Alaska LNG was designated under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or FAST-41, to receive expedited federal regulatory reviews and was fully approved in 2025. Glenfarne is now lining up long-term customers and arranging project financing.Federal regulators have granted requests for extensions to other developers of LNG plants. Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG and Commonwealth LNG were both approved in 2025 to move the in-service dates on their plants in southwest Louisiana to December 2031.