Louisiana’s Argent LNG gets key export approval

By Alton Wallace
The Center Square

Argent LNG announced it has received authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy to export up to 25 million metric tons annually – about 3.54 billion cubic feet per day – to countries that have a Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

DOE Order 5447 allows Argent to export liquified natural gas from its proposed shipping terminal at Port Fourchon in Lafourche Parish, located about 70 miles south-southwest of New Orleans, where the company expects to begin operations in the first quarter of 2030.

“We started this company to give allied nations a real alternative to weaponized Russian gas,” Argent Chairman and CEO Jonathan Bass said in a statement. “DOE Order No. 5447 confirms that the alternative is real, it is authorized, and it is coming from Port Fourchon, Louisiana. We will not slow down.”

The LNG export terminal will be built because Argent believes America has “the supply, the obligation, and the will to offer allied nations a real alternative,” Bass added in a post on LinkedIn.

If approved, Metairie-based Argent would become the only owner and operator of an LNG export terminal with a corporate headquarters in Louisiana. The LNG terminal is to be built on an approximately 900-acre parcel at Port Fourchon, under a long-term lease agreement with the Greater Lafourche Port Commission.

Argent has filed separately to export LNG to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and this application remains under review.

In recent months, Argent has announced memorandums of understanding supporting potential LNG supply agreements with Ukraine, Bangladesh and Turkey.

The company expects to begin construction in late 2027. At full build-out, the 25 million tons of capacity would establish Argent as the third-largest LNG export facility in Louisiana. In 2031, Cheniere’s Sabine Pass terminal in Cameron Parish is projected to lead the state with 36 million tons of capacity, followed by Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG plant at 28 million tons.