Delfin Midstream has taken a final investment decision on the first phase of its offshore liquefied natural gas export project off the Louisiana coast, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration announced on Tuesday. The $5 billion Delfin FLNG 1 will be the first floating LNG export facility operating in U.S. waters when it enters service later this decade.
Funding for the first floating liquefaction vessel was approved by a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners, now part of BlackRock, alongside existing investors Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Vitol, and Diameter Capital Partners. South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries is building the vessel, with production expected to begin in 2030. Centrica, Germany's SEFE, Vitol, and Gunvor have signed long term offtake agreements for the initial phase.
Delfin FLNG 1 is designed to export up to 4.4 million metric tons of LNG per year. The company plans to deploy three floating vessels in total, with combined liquefaction capacity of 13.2 million metric tons annually, equivalent to roughly 1.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The vessels will connect to existing offshore pipeline infrastructure about 41 nautical miles off Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
The project's deepwater port license, issued by MARAD in 2025, was the first ever granted for an offshore LNG export facility in U.S. history. It moves forward under the Trump administration's push to expand LNG exports after reversing the Biden administration's pause on new export approvals. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has made accelerating deepwater port approvals a priority, and MARAD has since issued a second license for the Texas GulfLink crude export terminal.
Floating LNG technology has already been deployed in Australia, Africa, and Southeast Asia, but Delfin is widely viewed as a test case for whether the model can scale for U.S. natural gas exports. By siting liquefaction offshore and tying into existing pipelines, supporters argue producers can bring new export capacity online faster than the multi year coastal terminal buildouts that have dominated the sector.