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These are the first two of nine LNG carriers Venture Global has on order in South Korea.
In June this year, Venture Global announced the launch of its 174,000-cbm vessel, Venture Gator, at a ceremony that took place at the Samsung Heavy Industries yard in Geoje, South Korea.
This vessel and the 174,000-cbm, Venture Bayou, which left South Korea in August, arrived at Venture Global’s Calcasieu plant in Louisiana last week.
“The first two brand new ships of Venture Global’s fleet have been loaded with LNG for the first time and are heading to Germany,” Venture Global said in a social media post during the weekend.
“To date, Venture Global has sent almost 50 cargoes to Germany and looks forward to many more through our long-term partnerships with EnBW and SEFE for supply from the future CP2 LNG,” the firm said.
Venture Global did not provide further information.
AIS data provided by VesselsValue shows that Venture Gator was located offshore the Bahamas on Monday, while Venture Bayou was in the Gulf of Mexico.
They should arrive in Germany in October.
State-owned German LNG terminal operator DET currently operates the first Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal and the LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel. DET still expects to launch its next two FSRU-based LNG import terminals in Stade and Wilhelmshaven by the end of this year.
Besides these FSRU-based facilities, private firm Deutsche ReGas recently launched commercial operations at its Murkan LNG terminal, which features two FSRUs.
Venture Global is boosting its business in Europe, and it recently booked long-term capacity at Gastrade’s FSRU-based LNG import terminal off Alexandroupolis, Greece.
Under the binding terminal use agreement, Venture Global has secured about 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG regasification capacity at the terminal for five years, beginning in 2025.
Venture Global said this capacity booking at the Alexandroupolis terminal “further integrates our business by growing our assets across the LNG supply chain, including LNG production, shipping, and regasification.”
Earlier this year, Venture Global booked long-term capacity at National Grid’s Grain LNG import terminal in the United Kingdom.
Under this deal, Venture Global will have the ability to access 3 mtpa of LNG storage and regasification capacity at the Isle of Grain LNG receiving terminal for sixteen years beginning in 2029.
LNG export plants
Venture Global currently only produces LNG at its 10 mtpa Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana, but the firm is also working to start production at its Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana.
Calcasieu Pass produced its first LNG on January 19, 2022, and the first commissioning cargo left the facility on March 1.
However, Venture Global has not yet declared the start of commercial operations.
Long-term customers of the Calcasieu pass facility include Shell, BP, Edison, Repsol, Galp, and PGNiG, now part of Orlen.
Energy giants Shell and BP and other firms are in a dispute with Venture Global over the launch of commercial operations at the facility.
Besides Calcasieu Pass, Venture Global is building its Plaquemines LNG export plant.
Venture Global recently received approval from the US FERC to start reverse cooldown activities at its Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana, as part of the terminal’s commissioning phase.
The company took a final investment decision in May 2022 on the first phase of the Plaquemines project with a capacity of 13.3 mtpa and the related pipeline. It also secured $13.2 billion in project financing.
In March last year, the company sanctioned the second phase of the Plaquemines LNG export plant in Louisiana and also secured $7.8 billion in project financing.
The full project, including the second stage, will have a capacity of 20 mtpa coming from 36 modular units, configured in 18 blocks.
In addition to Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines, in June, the US FERC gave the green light to Venture Global’s proposed CP2 LNG project in Louisiana.
The CP2 LNG plant will be located next to Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass liquefaction plant in Louisiana, which is still in the commissioning phase.
It will have 18 liquefaction blocks, each with a capacity of about 1.1 mtpa of LNG, and also four 200,000-cbm full containment LNG storage tanks.
Besides the FERC approval, CP2 LNG also needs non-FTA export authorization from the US Department of Energy.