Proceeds from the financings will be used to fund the costs for the development and construction of its 100%-owned Sabine Pass LNG liquefaction project in western Cameron Parish, Louisiana, US.
Besides, Cheniere Energy (CEI) has also agreed to purchase $500m in Cheniere Energy Partners’ stock under a separate unit purchase agreement.
Both the investors affiliated with Blackstone have agreed to buy 100 million units for $15 per unit each, while CEI has agreed to purchase 33.3 million units for $15.
Cheniere Energy Partners chairman and CEO Charif Souki said financing is the last milestone the company needs to complete in order to proceed with the construction of the first two trains of its Liquefaction Project at Sabine Pass.
"We expect to finance the Liquefaction Project with a combination of debt and equity, and these financings with Blackstone and CEI complete the equity portion," added Charif.
"We expect to complete the debt financing and advance our project in due course, with commencement of operations targeted for 2015."
Cheniere will also allocate the funds to purchase the Creole Trail Pipeline from Cheniere Energy and to fund modifications to the pipeline and for other partnership business purposes.
The Sabine Pass terminal has regasification and send-out capacity of 4.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) and storage capacity of 16.9 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe).
The liquefaction project at Sabine Pass will have four proposed modular LNG trains, each with a capacity of 4.5 mtpa.
