ANR Pipeline approved to start up part of gas project that will feed LNG facility

Houston — TC Energy's ANR Pipeline was given the go-ahead by US regulators April 20 to begin service on part of its Grand Chenier XPress project that will provide up to 400,000 Dt/d of firm transportation service to Venture Global LNG's Calcasieu Pass liquefaction terminal in Louisiana.

Construction of the export facility is ahead of schedule, with first exports possible in late 2021. That would be a year early, allowing Venture Global to seize on the strong global market factors that are driving robust US shipments to Europe and Asia.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval allows ANR to begin service of an additional 15,000 horsepower that was added to its existing Eunice Compressor Station in Acadia Parish. Grand Chenier XPress also includes construction of a new 23,470 horsepower compressor station in Jefferson Davis Parish, modifications to a meter station and modifications to another compressor station in Cameron Parish.

Together, the improvements are designed to boost ANR's delivery capability from 700 MMcf/d to 1.1 Bcf/d.

Pending ANR's ability to complete the project and provide the additional incremental capacity, it intends to use the uprated horsepower at the Eunice station for efficiency and reliability purposes, according to the operator's April 16 request regarding the Eunice station modifications. TC Energy lists Grand Chenier XPress' in-service target as January 2022, though that could presumably be moved up depending on Calcasieu Pass' continued construction progress.

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 a filing with FERC on March 17.

In that filing, Venture Global confirmed the accelerated timing of construction of the terminal, following a tender it issued earlier in the month for at least 12 cargoes from Calcasieu Pass for delivery starting this fall. It also said its 23.4-mile TransCameron feedgas pipeline would begin service soon. TransCameron will connect the liquefaction terminal to ANR's Grand Chenier Compressor Station, which is being modified as part of the Grand Chenier XPress project.

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 March 17 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.