Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Basis of Presentation (Policies)

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Basis of Presentation (Policies)
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2016
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Basis of Presentation, Policy
The accompanying unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements of Cheniere have been prepared in accordance with GAAP for interim financial information and with Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. In our opinion, all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair presentation, have been included. Certain reclassifications have been made to conform prior period information to the current presentation.  The reclassifications had no effect on our overall consolidated financial position, operating results or cash flows.

In 2016, we started production at our natural gas liquefaction facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal (the “SPL Project”). As a result, we introduced two new line items entitled “Cost of sales” and “Marketing expense” on our Consolidated Statements of Operations. To conform to the new presentation, reclassifications were made in the prior period into these new line items. The components of these new line items are as follows:

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Cost of sales includes costs incurred directly for the production of LNG from the SPL Project such as natural gas feedstock, variable transportation and storage costs, derivative gains and losses associated with economic hedges to secure natural gas feedstock for the SPL Project, vessel chartering costs and other costs related to converting natural gas into LNG, all to the extent not utilized for the commissioning process. These costs were reclassified from operating and maintenance expense, which now primarily includes costs associated with operating and maintaining the SPL Project such as third-party service and maintenance contract costs, payroll and benefit costs of operations personnel, natural gas transportation and storage capacity demand charges, derivative gains and losses related to the sale and purchase of LNG associated with the regasification terminal, insurance and regulatory costs.

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Marketing expense includes costs directly associated with our LNG and natural gas marketing activities by Cheniere Marketing such as payroll and benefit costs of LNG marketing and origination personnel, professional services and other support costs to contract LNG customers throughout the global marketplace for the SPL Project and our second natural gas liquefaction and export facility at the Corpus Christi LNG terminal (the “CCL Project”). These costs were reclassified from general and administrative expense.

Additionally, we distinguished and reclassified our historical “LNG terminal revenues” line item into “regasification revenues” and “LNG revenues.” Regasification revenues include LNG regasification capacity reservation fees that are received pursuant to our TUAs and tug services fees that are received by Sabine Pass Tug Services, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of SPLNG. LNG revenues include fees that will be received pursuant to our SPAs and related LNG marketing activities.