GASTECH 2021: Venture Global LNG's Calcasieu Pass said to be nearing completion

Venture Global LNG's Calcasieu Pass export terminal in Louisiana is nearing completion and will begin production within months, Chief Commercial Officer Tom Earl said Sept. 22 at the Gastech conference in Dubai.

The developer said in March that first LNG exports could occur in late 2021. Earl's update did not reference a specific date for production, suggesting that output could start later this year or early next year. He did not reference first exports during his comments.

According to filings with US regulators, Calcasieu Pass has begun early commissioning activities at the facility. It has not yet received approval to flow feedgas to its liquefaction trains – that would be a precursor to beginning production.

"Calcasieu Pass is completing about now, and as we go through the coming months we'll start production shortly at that site," Earl said.

The 10 million mt/year capacity facility is being built using modular trains that are smaller than the traditional liquefaction units used at other US facilities. The modular trains are being constructed in Italy and delivered to the site and plugged in one at a time.

Venture Global has said it plans a phased operational start-up. If it does begin production and exports by the end of 2021, that would be about a year earlier than originally anticipated. Earlier this year, the company said full operations at the export terminal were expected in mid-2022. Earl, in his comments, did not address a tender that Venture Global issued earlier this year for at least 12 cargoes from Calcasieu Pass for delivery starting during the fall.

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

One of the other projects, Plaquemines LNG, which would be built in two phases and have a production capacity of up to 20 million mt/year, has not yet been formally sanctioned, though Earl said at Gastech that initial construction activities would begin "imminently." He said there had been "mobilization on site recently."