Venture Global, the US LNG project developer with two export plants proposed for Louisiana, has filed with regulators to permit its construction of a third plant in the Gulf Coast state.
The Arlington, Virginia-based company filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a venture called Delta LNG and its associated Delta Express pipeline.
The company’s first and most advanced plant is at Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana with current nameplate export volumes of 12 million tonnes per annum and is expected to come on stream in 2022, along with associated facilities, including the TransCameron Pipeline.
Venture Global, owned by former investment banker Michael Sabel and lawyer Robert Pender who act as joint chief executives, is also constructing a second plant at Plaquemines near river mile-marker 55 on the west side of the Mississippi River, 30 miles south of New Orleans.
The Mississippi River project has current output targets of 20 MTPA of LNG and was set to include small-scale liquefaction Trains, four LNG storage tanks and three marine loading berths.
The Delta LNG plant is also proposed for Plaquemines Parish and would have peak capacity to process 24 MTPA.
The filing made on April 17 also requested the start of a permit process for a 287-mile pipeline called Delta Express between Perryville in Louisiana, crossing into the neighbouring state of Mississippi, and then back into Louisiana to connect to the LNG plant.
According to a preliminary schedule the third Venture Global project could see construction start in late 2021 and the plant shipping its first cargo by November 2024.
Venture Global had in March 2019 that it planned to expand the scope of its LNG development business on the US Gulf Coast to 60 MTPA of production based on customer demand, almost doubling current plans for 32 MTPA of output.
Co-CEOs Pender and Sabel said that having fully contracted Calcasieu Pass and anticipating completion of Plaquemines LNG an expansion was being studied to meet additional customer demand.
“We believe our model of mid-scale modular liquefaction is the future of low-cost LNG production,” they said.
Venture Global noted that the Calcasieu Pass project with its planned 10 MTPA of output had received all federal authorizations.
The project’s engineering contractor, Kiewit Energy of Omaha, Nebraska, is now carrying out site preparation in advance of construction.
The Calcasieu Pass plant has signed binding 20-year sale and purchase agreements with companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP of the UK, Italian utility Edison, Portugal’s Galp Energia, Repsol of Spain and Poland’s national oil and gas company.
The Plaquemines project is expected to receive its final regulatory authorization in August and commence construction later in 2019.
