French energy company EDF agreed to buy liquefied natural gas from an export facility being developed in Texas, Cheniere Energy announced.

Cheniere's subsidiary, Corpus Christi Liquefaction, said it entered into a sale and purchase agreement with the French energy company.

EDF under the terms of the agreement agreed to purchase 380,000 tons of liquefied natural gas from the second phase, or train, of the LNG export facility under development in Corpus Christi. Another 770,000 tons of LNG would come from Train 3 once it's developed.

The export terminal in Corpus Christi would have three trains with a net production capacity of 13.6 million tons of LNG per year.

"EDF is the first foundation customer on Train 3 of our Corpus Christi Liquefaction Project being developed in Texas," Chairman Charif Souki said in a statement Thursday.

The terms of the EDF agreement extend for 20 years and deliveries are expected as early as 2019.

To date, Cheniere said it's entered into sales purchase agreements for at least 6 million tons of LNG per year. Construction on the LNG export facility is expected to start early next year.

LNG exports from the United States require special consideration for countries without a U.S. free-trade agreement.