Cheniere Energy finished construction on the last of seven liquefaction trains at its Corpus Christi Stage 3 project on Aug. 28, and loaded its 5,000th LNG cargo the next day, the company said Aug. 31, 2026. The two milestones add more than 20% to Cheniere's production capacity, taking it to about 56 million tonnes a year.
Stage 3 finishes after four years of construction
Bechtel Energy, which built Stage 3 for Cheniere under an engineering, procurement and construction contract, formally handed over the project's seventh and final train on Aug. 28. Cheniere gave Bechtel notice to proceed with construction in June 2022, and the first Stage 3 train began producing LNG in December 2024. Chairman, President and CEO Jack Fusco said Cheniere and Bechtel delivered the project "safely, on budget and ahead of schedule."
5,000th cargo sails for Asia
No other LNG producer has reached 5,000 cargoes as quickly as Cheniere has. The company loaded the milestone cargo onto the tanker Yari, which left Sabine Pass on Aug. 29 bound for Asia. Fusco called it "a remarkable achievement" reached in "record time," noting it came just 10 years after Cheniere's first cargo in 2016.
Cheniere has now supplied more than 340 million tonnes of LNG since that first cargo, and its platform has grown to more than 10% of global LNG capacity. Cheniere operates liquefaction terminals at Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi on the U.S. Gulf Coast, with about 56 mtpa of capacity now in operation and roughly 5 mtpa more under construction.
