Cheniere Energy Inc. (AMEX: LNG) said April 20 it engaged financial institutions to arrange a debt financing of up to $6.4 billion to fund its liquefaction project in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The Houston-based energy company will use the financing to fund a portion of the costs of developing, constructing and placing into service three liquefaction trains and related facilities of the Corpus Christi liquefaction project, and the related pipeline being developed near Corpus Christi and for related business purposes.

The company's subsidiary Cheniere Corpus Christi Holdings LLC will amend and upsize its existing roughly $4.6 billion of credit facilities to increase the available commitments.

The joint lead arrangers include ABN Amro Capital USA LLC, Bank of America NA, Bank of China New York Branch, The Bank of Nova Scotia Houston Branch, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA New York Branch, China Merchants Bank Co. Ltd. New York Branch, Citibank NA, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, DBS Bank Ltd., Goldman Sachs Bank USA, HSBC Bank USA NA, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. New York Branch, ING Capital LLC, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA New York Branch, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, Lloyds Bank Plc, Mizuho Bank Ltd., Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc., MUFG Bank Ltd., RBC Capital Markets, Santander Bank NA, Société Générale, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and others.

Cheniere said it expects to close the amended credit facilities, proceed with a final investment decision for train 3 of the Corpus Christi liquefaction project, and issue a notice to proceed to Bechtel Oil, Gas and Chemicals Inc. for train 3 in first-half 2018.