US-based Cheniere Energy plans to market up to 5 million mt/year of LNG natural gas from a new office in Singapore after its export terminals in the US become operational, Nicolas Zanen, the company’s vice president for trading, said Wednesday.

“Cheniere Marketing, a subsidiary of Cheniere Energy, will keep all the excess volume that may be produced at Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi to sell a on spot and shoulder term basis,” Zanen said at CWC’s sixth annual Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore.

When completed, both facilities would have a total of nine liquefaction trains and Zanen said his company expects to be able to market “more than 5 million mt/year on a spot and short term basis. We intend to market this volume on both an FOB and Ex-ship basis and have already chartered ships to deliver some of this LNG.”

Cheniere Marketing, which recently established a trading office in Singapore, has chartered three ships for five years, with options to extend, he said.

The company has a time charter for Dynagas’ 162,000-cubic-meter Clean Ocean beginning in the second quarter of 2015, according to a Dynagas filing with SEC. The charter would last at least until the end of the second quarter of 2020 and could be extended to the third quarter of 2022.Cheniere also has signed five-year time-charter contracts with Teekay LNG for two 173,400-cu-m carriers ordered by Teekay in December 2012. The ships are scheduled to be delivered in the first half of 2016.Zanen said Cheniere that its Singapore office will focus initially on marketing remaining volumes earmarked for long-term contracts from both terminals before turning its attention to spot.LONG TERM UP FOR GRABS

Cheniere has between 2-3 million mt/year of LNG still available for long-term contracts from train 6 at Sabine Pass in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, Zanen said.

A total of 7.65 million mt/year out of a possible 10.5 million mt/year has already been sold from the 13.5-million-mt/year Corpus Christi facility in Texas.

Deals have largely been concluded with costs of $2.75-3.50/MMBtu for Sabine Pass supplies and $3.50/MMBtu for the Corpus Christi project, plus 115% of the final settlement price for NYMEX Henry Hub futures on the month in which the cargo loads.

The company is close to completing construction of the first two trains at Sabine Pass and expects them to begin operating by the end of 2015, Zanen said. Trains 3 and 4 at Sabine are scheduled to start up in 2016-2017 and plans to add another two trains at the facility are well advanced, he said.

Cheniere also expects to reach final investment decision at Corpus Christi in Q1 2015, with the production from all three trains scheduled to come online in quick succession, beginning in late 2018, Zanen added.