Sempra Signs 20-Year Petrobras LNG Deal as ECA Terminal Clears Commissioning
The sales and purchase agreement adds contracted demand for ECA LNG Phase 1 fewer than ten weeks after the facility shipped its first cargo.
Sempra Infrastructure announced on Monday (2026-09-14) a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with Petrobras, under which Sempra will supply LNG from its Energia Costa Azul project on Mexico's Pacific coast. The announcement came fewer than ten weeks after ECA LNG Phase 1 loaded its first cargo, securing a long-term buyer while the terminal was still working through commissioning.7
ECA LNG Phase 1 is a joint venture between Sempra Infrastructure and TotalEnergies, located in Ensenada on Mexico's Baja California peninsula. The facility achieved first LNG production during the commissioning process in June 2026. TotalEnergies confirmed on July 8 (2026-07-08) that the inaugural cargo had been dispatched to Asia. Substantial completion of Phase 1 had been targeted for that same summer, with commercial operations to follow; neither milestone had been formally confirmed in published announcements by the time the Petrobras deal was announced on September 14 (2026-09-14).1,4,2,5
The terminal is Mexico's second LNG export facility, according to EIA data. Its single liquefaction train carries a nameplate production capacity of 3.25 million metric tons per annum, per Sempra and TotalEnergies project disclosures. EIA assessed the facility's nominal export capacity at 0.4 billion cubic feet per day, a volume that by itself triples Mexico's prior LNG export capacity.6,1
Pacific-coast geography is central to ECA's commercial rationale. Cargoes loading at Ensenada reach Northeast Asian buyers without Panama Canal transit, a routing advantage over US Gulf Coast LNG exporters that reduces voyage time and canal-related exposure. TotalEnergies, holding a 16.6% stake in the joint venture, acted as exclusive offtaker during the ramp-up period and directed the first cargo to Asia. JKM, the Asian LNG benchmark, was priced at $27.51/MMBtu on September 19 (2026-09-19). NYMEX Henry Hub front-month gas stood at $2.91/MMBtu the same day. The gap between North American feedstock costs and delivered Asian prices, after liquefaction tolls and shipping, defines the commercial case for Pacific-coast Mexican LNG — and on those numbers, the arbitrage remains open.3,4
TotalEnergies' exclusive offtake role was a commissioning-period arrangement, not a permanent position. The Petrobras SPA represents a different commitment: a 20-year agreement signed with a named buyer while ECA Phase 1 had barely loaded its first vessel. Long-term contracted supply from a facility mid-commissioning gives Sempra a buyer on the books before any Phase 2 financing process, though Sempra's press release did not characterize the deal in those terms.7,3
Phase 2 is where the scale lies. Sempra's plans call for two additional liquefaction trains and one storage tank at Ensenada, targeting approximately 12 million metric tons per annum of export capacity. The US Department of Energy has authorized Phase 2 to export 698 billion cubic feet per year of natural gas equivalent — roughly 13.5 MMtpa — to both free-trade-agreement and non-FTA countries on a non-additive basis, according to Sempra. That is more than four times what Phase 1 can produce at nameplate.2
No final investment decision timeline for Phase 2 has been made public. But against a DOE-authorized export volume of 13.5 MMtpa, a single SPA with an undisclosed contracted volume leaves most of the proposed expansion's offtake capacity without a signed buyer.2,7
The Petrobras announcement did not disclose the contracted volume, pricing mechanism, delivery basis, or whether the agreement covers Phase 1 alone or extends to Phase 2 capacity that has not yet reached a construction decision. Those details, once public, would clarify how much of Sempra's broader export ambition Petrobras has actually underwritten.7