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Organization and Nature of Operations
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12 Months Ended |
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Dec. 31, 2013
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| Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract] | |
| Organization and nature of operations |
ORGANIZATION AND NATURE OF OPERATIONS
Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE MKT: LNG), a Delaware corporation, is a Houston-based energy company primarily engaged in LNG-related businesses. We own and operate the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana through our ownership interest in and management agreements with Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. ("Cheniere Partners") (NYSE MKT: CQP), which is a publicly traded partnership that we created in 2007. We own 100% of the general partner interest in Cheniere Partners and 84.5% of Cheniere Energy Partners LP Holdings, LLC ("Cheniere Holdings") (NYSE MKT: CQH), which owns a 55.9% limited partner interest in Cheniere Partners.
In 2013, we formed Cheniere Holdings, a publicly traded limited liability company, to hold our limited partner interests in Cheniere Partners. In December 2013, Cheniere Holdings completed an initial public offering of 36.0 million common shares at $20.00 per common share (the "Cheniere Holdings Offering").
The Sabine Pass LNG terminal is located on the Sabine Pass deep water shipping channel less than four miles from the Gulf Coast. The Sabine Pass LNG terminal has operational regasification facilities owned by Cheniere Partners' wholly owned subsidiary, Sabine Pass LNG, L.P. ("Sabine Pass LNG"), that includes existing infrastructure of five LNG storage tanks with capacity of approximately 16.9 Bcfe, two docks that can accommodate vessels with capacity of up to 265,000 cubic meters and vaporizers with regasification capacity of approximately 4.0 Bcf/d. Cheniere Partners is developing and constructing natural gas liquefaction facilities (the "Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project") at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal adjacent to the existing regasification facilities through a wholly owned subsidiary, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC ("Sabine Pass Liquefaction"). Cheniere Partners plans to construct up to six Trains which are in various stages of development. Each Train is expected to have nominal production capacity of approximately 4.5 mtpa. Cheniere Partners also owns the 94-mile Creole Trail Pipeline through a wholly owned subsidiary, Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline, L.P. ("CTPL"), which interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG terminal with a number of large interstate pipelines. One of our subsidiaries, Cheniere Marketing, LLC ("Cheniere Marketing"), is marketing LNG and natural gas on its own behalf and on behalf of Cheniere Partners, in an effort to utilize half of the LNG regasification capacity at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal during construction of the Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project. Cheniere Marketing has also entered into an SPA with Sabine Pass Liquefaction to purchase, at Cheniere Marketing's option, up to 104,000,000 MMBtu/yr of LNG.
In May 2013, we sold our ownership interests in CTPL and Cheniere Pipeline GP Interests, LLC (collectively, the "Creole Trail Pipeline Business") to Cheniere Partners for $480.0 million and were reimbursed $13.9 million for certain expenditures incurred prior to the closing date. Concurrent with the Creole Trail Pipeline Business sale closing, we acquired 12.0 million Class B units from Cheniere Partners for aggregate consideration of $180.0 million pursuant to a unit purchase agreement between Cheniere Partners and Cheniere Class B Units Holdings, LLC, our wholly owned subsidiary. As a result of the two transactions, we received net cash of $313.9 million.
We are developing a second natural gas liquefaction and export facility near Corpus Christi, Texas (the "Corpus Christi Liquefaction Project"). As currently contemplated, the proposed Corpus Christi Liquefaction LNG terminal would be designed for up to three Trains, with expected aggregate nominal production capacity of approximately 13.5 mtpa of LNG, have three LNG storage tanks with capacity of 10.1 Bcfe and two docks that can accommodate vessels with capacity of up to 267,000 cubic meters.
We are also in various stages of developing other projects, which, among other things, will require acceptable commercial and financing arrangements before we make a final investment decision.
Unless the context requires otherwise, references to the "Company", "Cheniere", "we", "us" and "our" refer to Cheniere Energy, Inc. and its subsidiaries, including our publicly traded subsidiary partnership, Cheniere Partners.
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