CERAWEEK: Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal moving at fast construction pace: VG

Houston — Venture Global LNG's Calcasieu Pass liquefaction terminal in Louisiana was expected to have almost half of its production trains in place within weeks, putting the 10 million mt/year project well ahead of schedule, CEO Michael Sabel said March 3.

The comments during a panel discussion at the CERAWeek by IHS Markit energy conference follow reports of a recent supply tender that Venture Global issued that is tied to the terminal. The tender, according to market sources, was for at least 12 cargoes from October 2021 to December 2022. That would suggest a possible startup of the facility a year earlier than expectations of fall 2022. Officially, Venture Global has not updated its startup timing, and Sabel did not address that subject directly in his comments at the conference.

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Sabel said he expected the seventh and eighth trains of the 18-train facility to be installed in the coming weeks.

"We are approximately 20 months after FID and earlier this week just plugged in our fifth and sixth liquefaction trains," Sabel said.

Because the trains are modular and smaller than the typical trains used by most of the existing US LNG exporters, Calcasieu Pass' trains can be built offsite, transported to the terminal and installed. The nature of the process saves on time and costs. That can allow Venture Global to sell its LNG cheaper than its US competitors, Sabel said.

"There's ripple effects on contract structure, who shares and is exposed to what risk," he said. "All of it adds up to lower costs."

Venture Global has been the most successful of the second wave US LNG export developers, having sold about 90% of the terminal's total off-take under long-term agreements before announcing a formal final investment decision on the project in 2019.

Besides Calcasieu Pass, Venture Global is developing the proposed Plaquemines LNG export facility in Louisiana, which would have a production capacity of up to 20 million mt/year. Venture Global has delayed its target for closing financing on that project until mid-2021, after previously planning to make an FID in late 2020.

The company has also proposed two other liquefaction terminals in Louisiana.