An LNG import project off the US Gulf Coast is set to be transformed into a 24 million tonnes per annum export development.McMoRan Exploration’s Freeport-McMoRan Energy offshoot holds title to the existing Main Pass Energy Hub facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, which under the plan will host six floating liquefaction, storage and offloading vessels. The owner has applied to the Department of Energy for a licence to ship out LNG to countries that hold a free trade agreement with the US in the first stage of its two-part export application.McMoRan