Fourth train complete at Cheniere's Sabine Pass LNG plant

(Reuters) - Cheniere Energy Partners LP said Friday that the fourth train at its Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas plant was substantially complete, boosting output from the first LNG export terminal in the United States by a third.

LNG plants are made up of trains, which are liquefaction facilities used to supercool natural gas for transport on ships.

Offtake from the train, which has a 4.5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) nameplate capacity, is contracted to GAIL (India) Ltd for a 20-year period, with shipments to commence in March 2018.

Until then, LNG produced from the train will be sold by Cheniere into the market, spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said.

A fifth train is under construction at the facility, which will further boost capacity at the export terminal from 18 Mtpa to 22.5 Mtpa by the second half of 2019.

At least five other export terminals are set to come online on the east coast of the United States over the next few years, including Cheniere's own Corpus Christi facility in Texas.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver)