CERAWEEK: Venture Global eyes more mid-term deals as Middle East war lifts demand

US exporter Venture Global will look to sign more five-year deals to meet surging near-term demand for LNG as the war in the Middle East constrains about 20% of global supply, CEO Mike Sabel said March 23, adding the company's share of spot volumes stands to grow when its third liquefaction terminal comes online next year.

"We have the most available LNG for years to come," Sabel said during a news conference on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston.

The company, which is already the second-largest US LNG exporter and aims to become the largest, said it has about 30% of its production capacity available for the spot market in 2026. Sabel's comments came just hours after Venture Global announced signing a five-year offtake deal with global commodities trader Vitol for about 1.5 million metric tons/year, with deliveries starting in 2026.

The contract marked the second medium-term deal the exporter has signed this month -- following a similar deal for 500,000 mt/year with Trafigura. It also reflected the company's pivot over the past several months toward portfolio-based deals without tying supply to a specific terminal.

Venture Global operates two LNG export facilities in Louisiana -- the nameplate 20 million mt/year Plaquemines terminal and the nameplate 10 million mt/year Calcasieu Pass plant. Its third terminal, CP2, that is expected to come online in 2027. CP2 will have a nameplate capacity of 20 million mt/year, including volumes from an expansion launched by the developer earlier this month.

Sabel said Venture Global has always planned to pursue medium-term contracts but first needed to ramp up Plaquemines and to gain a clearer understanding of when CP2 would come online, "so we could take a view of what we expected our production curve to look like for, in this case, the next five years."

"We've reached that point now," Sabel said.

Approach

Venture Global's development model uses modular trains to lower costs and begin production faster than it usually takes to bring a major onshore US export terminal online, which can take four years or longer.

Venture Global's liquefaction units are built in Italy, shipped to the terminal sites, and installed. Several of the modular units are already on site at CP2.

The company's approach also entails selling volumes during startup over an extended commissioning period. Beyond the projects in operation or under construction, Venture Global is pursuing large brownfield expansions of Plaquemines and CP2.

"Having multiple projects in different phases also gives us the ability to fix dates on deliveries, and this is something very attractive for us to offer customers," Sabel said.

At Calcasieu Pass, the approach led to an ongoing legal dispute between the exporter and foundational customers who made the project possible. Venture Global exported cargoes from Calcasieu Pass for three years before starting commercial operations in April 2025, earning billions of dollars in the process.

The US producer has stuck to the lengthy commissioning approach with subsequent projects and stands to benefit from elevated global LNG spot prices.

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed the May JKM benchmark price for spot LNG delivered to Northeast Asia at $22.96/million British thermal units on March 23, an increase of about 1% from the prior assessment and still more than twice the price level on Feb. 27, before the US and Israel began strikes against Iran.

Outlook

Venture Global said it will start commercial operations at Plaquemines in the fourth quarter, after exporting the first LNG cargo in late 2024 and ramping up the facility over the course of last year.

Sabel said it has sold about 100 commissioning cargoes to QatarEnergy – the main supplier through the Strait of Hormuz – since Plaquemines came online.

The Venture Global chief said he viewed the supply disruption in the Middle East as "relatively short-term" and that Qatar and the Middle East will remain a major share of LNG buyers' portfolios.

Sabel said the delay to QatarEnergy's North Field expansion is "probably the most impactful" factor for the LNG market stemming from the conflict. QatarEnergy has said the war could delay the project by over a year.

The crisis will likely encourage more US contracts, Sabel said.

But like other US market participants at CERAWeek, Sabel praised reported talks between the US and Iran to end the hostilities.

"We're hoping for an end to conflict as soon as possible, for the safety, of course, of the people in the region, and also just so gas prices can be stabilized," Sabel said. "We want long-term stable prices, so that the market benefits from gas and the use of gas but also so they can make investments for the long term. These are long term decisions to build a gas plant instead of a coal plant, regas capacity and related infrastructure."