HOUSTON, May 6 (Reuters) - U.S. pipeline company Energy

Transfer ( ET ) on Tuesday said it is nearing a go-ahead on its

Lake Charles liquefied natural gas project after an unnamed

Japanese company agreed to buy 1 million metric tonnes of LNG

from the proposed export facility.

Lake Charles was the first LNG project impacted by the Biden

administration's refusal to grant an extension to Energy

Transfer's ( ET ) license to export to countries other than those that

have free trade agreements with the United States. The former

president subsequently declared a moratorium on new export

licenses for LNG plants pending an environmental impact study.

President Donald Trump in January issued an order for the

U.S. to resume processing export permit applications for new LNG

projects as part of an effort to raise U.S. energy output and

dismantle his predecessor's climate policies.

Energy Transfer ( ET ) said it now had 10.5 MTPA of the 16.5 MTPA

in committed LNG sales and that it was confident it can get to a

final investment decision by the end of the year.

The company said it was working through estimated costs to

construct the facility.

Meanwhile, the company said it had secured all of the

pipeline steel for its new Hugh Brinson natural gas pipeline

from U.S. mills.

Trump introduced a 25% tariff on all U.S. imports of steel

in March, raising concerns about a spike in costs for pipeline

construction.

Construction of phase one of the Hugh Brinson pipeline

started in the first quarter. The 442-mile (711 km) project will

transport natural gas from processing facilities in west Texas

to existing pipeline infrastructure south of the Dallas-Fort

Worth metroplex.

Energy Transfer ( ET ) is looking at making the Hugh Brinson

pipeline bidirectional, meaning it will be able to ship gas in

both directions, which will be relatively inexpensive, said

Marshall McCrea, Energy Transfer's ( ET ) co-chief executive officer.

Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2025

was $4.10 billion compared with $3.88 billion for the three

months ended March 31, 2024.