LNG

Venture Global LNG, the developer of the Plaquemines export plant on the Mississippi River, expects in new regulatory filings to begin production around mid-2024 at the eighth US LNG export facility and the second plant owned and operated by Venture Global.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company has requested approval from the US Department of Energy’s Fossil Fuels body to receive up to three imported LNG cargoes as part of the Plaquemines commissioning process to cool down equipment ahead of the plant start-up.

Plaquemines has also asked for and received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval for natural gas supply to be delivered on its Gator Express pipeline venture.

“Plaquemines LNG submitted Volume 321 of the Implementation Plan, which contained information regarding the introduction of gas to the gas gate,” said the FERC filing.

LNG confidential

Plaquemines also requested that the response and attachments “be treated as both privileged and confidential and withheld from public disclosure” as they contain proprietary information used by Plaquemines LNG and its third-party consultants that is “customarily treated” as privileged and confidential.

Even though the role of the FERC is to inform the public about energy developments Venture Global has almost permanently requested non-disclosure by the FERC as the information “could result in commercial and competitive harm” to Plaquemines LNG and its consultants.

The Plaquemines liquefaction facility is on a 630-acre site with 1.3 miles of Mississippi River frontage.

The Gator Express venture comprises two pipelines, each with capacity of around 1.9 billion cubic feet per day to deliver natural gas from pipeline interconnections to the Plaquemines plant located about 20 miles south of New Orleans.

The liquefaction plant’s total planned capacity is 20 million tonnes per annum with the first phase to produce 10 MTPA.

Long commissioning

Venture Global's existing Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana shipped its first cargo in March 2022 and comprises 18 small-scale modular liquefaction Trains each with 0.626 million tonnes per annum of capacity and configured in nine blocks for total nameplate output of 11.26 MTPA.

In addition to the Plaquemines plant Venture Global is developing the CP2 project, so called because it will be built adjacent to the Calcasieu Pass facility, and the Delta LNG plant.

The three newer plants will each have nameplate capacity of around 20 MTPA.

Venture Global has signed up many energy companies from around the world as long-term customers for its various projects.

The company has also been the subject of complaints and arbitration proceedings brought by customers such as Shell and BP over the commissioning process at Calcasieu Pass.

The commissioning has lasted for more than two years, and thus deprived customers of contracted cargoes available once commissioning comes to an end and the commercial start-up begins.

FERC finally intervened in the long-running dispute between Venture Global LNG and its Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana and major customers over delays in activating sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) for contract cargoes.

The regulator asked Venture Global to explain why it has extensively filed “confidential” documents in relation to the Calcasieu Pass export project.

Venture Global LNG has told the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it could not meet contracts to provide cargoes from the Calcasieu Pass export plant in Louisiana to major customers because the facility was not yet ready to meet three criteria in the sales and purchase agreements.

UK major BP filed a complaint with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against LNG developer Venture Global claiming the Arlington, Virginia-based company was “illegally withholding information” about delays in delivering LNG from its Calcasieu Pass export plant in Louisiana.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases and clean energy company, reported a record backlog for an eighth consecutive quarter, surpassing $2 billion for the first time in its history.

EnBW, the German utility headquartered in Stuttgart in the southwest German industrial state of Baden-Württemberg, has expanded its agreement to purchase LNG cargoes from US Gulf Coast producer Venture Global.

New Fortress Energy Inc., the New York-based LNG-for-power project company, has signed two 20-year sale and purchase agreements with US company Venture Global, owner of the existing Calcasieu Pass LNG plant and developer of three other liquefaction and export projects in Louisiana.

McDermott, the US engineering company, said its storage business, CB&I, has been awarded a contract by Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG project for two 200,000 cubic-metre storage tanks.

US LNG project developer Venture Global has raised $500 million of funding in transactions arranged by American and Japanese banks to finance construction activities at the Plaquemines LNG export project in Louisiana ahead of a final investment decision.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company already has an export plant under construction at Calcasieu Pass in Cameron Parish and has received authorization to build the Plaquemines export facility at river mile-marker 55 on the west side of the Mississippi, about 30 miles south of New Orleans.

The company said it had closed the term-loan involving JPMorgan Chase Bank, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Bank of America and Japan’s third-largest banking group, Mizuho Bank.

“The transaction was upsized from $400M to $500M based on strong lender interest,” said Venture Global.

“The proceeds will be used to fund pre-FID construction activities at the company's Plaquemines LNG export project as well as for general corporate purposes,” it added.

The transaction was upsized from $400 million to $500 million based on strong lender interest.

Plaquemines will be constructed in two phases, each phase designed with liquefaction and export capacity of 10 MTPA, and possibly more under optimal operating conditions.

Venture Global in December 2020 stated that US engineering firm KBR could have the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the first phase of the Plaquemines project.

The most advanced development by Venture Global is the Calcasieu Pass export plant in Louisiana, which is expected to come on stream in 2022 along with its associated TransCameron Pipeline.

The company is also studying other LNG export opportunities in the state of Louisiana.

Venture Global Chief Executive Michael Sabel said he was pleased to be able to to continue to partner with a group of leading banks, all of whom are lenders to the Calcasieu Pass export project.

“Replicating the successful strategy we pioneered and utilizing the same configuration, we will continue to execute on our commitment to provide the lowest cost LNG to the global market and supply the world's growing demand for clean and reliable energy,” added Sabel.

Venture Global's Plaquemines project has contracted 3.5 MTPA of the facility's 10 MTPA first phase under binding 20-year offtake agreements and received both Department of Energy export authorization and final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley served as joint lead arrangers on the transaction while Bank of America and Mizuho participated as lenders.

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP served as legal counsel to the borrower and lenders respectively.

Venture Global, the developer of several LNG export projects in Louisiana, has filed with US regulators to enter the pre-filing process for a plant with 24 million tonnes per annum in Cameron Parish with an affiliated pipeline running from Jasper County in Texas to the facility.

The US Calcasieu Pass liquefied natural gas export plant being developed in Louisiana by Venture Global has reached a construction landmark by having the roof raised on the first LNG storage tank.