Located on the Chesapeake Bay at the Cove Point LNG Terminal, the DECP liquefaction facility has the capability to process about 750 million standard cubic feet of inlet feed gas each day into 5.25 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG.
Construction on the liquefaction facility started in October 2014 following more than three years of federal, state and local permit reviews and approvals.
Dominion said that the LNG exports from Cove Point will expand Maryland’s global exports by up to 50% and reduce the country’s international trade balance by $5bn a year.
Dominion Energy chairman, president and CEO Thomas F Farrell II said: “This is a momentous occasion for Dominion Energy – as it is for Sumitomo, GAIL, Tokyo Gas, Kansai Electric Power; the state of Maryland; and the United States of America, India and Japan.
“This past April the project entered commercial service. And now, ships are delivering an American product – thereby creating American jobs and prosperity – to American allies, and thereby creating jobs and prosperity in Japan and India as well.”
The LNG produced at the DECP project will be supplied to ST Cove Point, which is the joint venture of Sumitomo and Tokyo Gas, as well as for Gail Global (USA) LNG, the US affiliate of GAIL (India), under 20-year take-or-pay contracts.
DECP had used more than 10,000 craft workers during the construction phase and had a payroll in the excess of $565m.
IHI/Kiewit Cove Point, a joint venture formed by IHI E&C International Corporation of Houston and Nebraska-based Kiewit Corporation, is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for new liquefaction facilities at the Cove Point terminal.
Dominion Energy said that the natural gas-fired turbines installed at the DECP facility will power its main refrigerant compressors.
The facility will also generate additional electricity on site to cover the power requirements of the liquefaction plant.
