Louisiana Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal could ship first cargo in late 2021: Venture Global

Houston — Venture Global LNG's Calcasieu Pass export terminal in Louisiana could ship its first cargo in late 2021, a year ahead of schedule, the operator told US regulators.

The 23.4-mile TransCameron pipeline that would bring feedgas to the terminal from interstate pipelines will begin service "very soon," Venture Global also said.

The disclosures late March 17 marked the first time Venture Global has confirmed the accelerated timing since it issued a tender earlier in the month for at least 12 cargoes from Calcasieu Pass for delivery starting this fall.

Venture Global made the comments in a filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting a waiver of certain rules on buy and sell transactions that would conceivably allow it to market upstream gas producers' output directly to foreign buyers. Cheniere Energy, the biggest US LNG exporter, secured such agreements with two shale producers.

Cheniere and the developers of the Golden Pass LNG export terminal in Texas and Driftwood LNG export terminal in Louisiana were granted waivers similar to the one Venture Global is requesting, Venture Global said.

"Calcasieu Pass anticipates that it will commence full operations of the export terminal in mid-2022, and plans for a phased operational start-up that, with the requisite review and approvals from commission staff, could include the first exports of LNG in late 2021," Venture Global said.

Startup was originally expected in fall 2022.

The operator said it raised the roof on its two LNG storage tanks and has received and set onto foundations the initial liquefaction modules, which were built off-site in Italy and transported to the terminal. CEO Michael Sabel said March 3 that the operator expected the seventh and eighth trains of the 18-train facility to be installed within weeks.

Venture Global has been the most successful of the second wave US LNG export developers, having sold 8 million mt/year of Calcasieu Pass' total off-take under long-term agreements before announcing a formal final investment decision on the project in 2019. It expects that it will contract the remaining 2 million mt/year of capacity before the completion of construction, Venture Global said in the FERC filing.

Besides Calcasieu Pass, Venture Global is developing three other proposed LNG export facilities in Louisiana.

Plaquemines LNG, which would have a production capacity of up to 20 million mt/year, has not yet been formally sanctioned, though Venture Global said in the filing that it was "nearing initial construction activity" on that project. To date, it has announced binding agreements covering 3.5 million mt/year of the facility's total capacity.

As for the waiver being sought from FERC for Calcasieu Pass, Venture Global said it was making the request as a precaution, largely because of relationships between the terminal's gas suppliers and liquefaction off-takers.

It did note, however, the remaining capacity at Calcasieu Pass that is currently unsold, adding that the company "could conceivably enter into such a contemporaneous gas supply and LNG off-take transaction in the future – which would be allowed by the waiver granted to Cheniere and requested here."