Corpus Christi becomes the second-largest US LNG terminal as Stage 3 completes
Victoria Shinder1 min readThe Corpus Christi LNG terminal in San Patricio County, Texas, is now the second-largest liquefied natural gas export facility in the United States, the Energy Information Administration noted in an analysis published on 15 September. Cheniere Energy completed its Corpus Christi Liquefaction Stage 3 project on 28 August, taking custody and control of the seventh and final LNG train.
Stage 3 consists of seven midscale trains with a combined nominal capacity of 1.3 billion cubic feet per day and a peak capacity of 1.5 Bcf/d. The first began producing LNG in December 2024, and output has risen gradually as each train came online. With all seven running, the terminal's total nominal capacity is 3.1 Bcf/d, or 3.9 Bcf/d at peak. Only Sabine Pass in Louisiana, also operated by Cheniere, is larger, at 3.6 Bcf/d nominal and 4.6 Bcf/d peak.
More is coming at the same site. A separate project, Corpus Christi Liquefaction Midscale, is under construction and will add two trains with 0.4 Bcf/d of nominal capacity (0.5 Bcf/d peak), expected online in 2028.
What it means
For gas markets, each new train is a new source of demand for US gas and a new source of supply for buyers in Europe and Asia. Capacity that runs continuously pulls gas from the Gulf Coast pipeline system, which is part of why domestic prices and export volumes are increasingly linked.
The design choice is worth noting. Instead of a few very large trains, Stage 3 used seven smaller, modular ones that came online one by one over about twenty months. That spreads construction risk and lets revenue start before the whole project is finished - and it is the same approach the next two trains on the site will follow.