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Back in 2017, Edison agreed to buy 1 million metric tons per annum of LNG for a period of 20 years from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
“Despite that contract, Venture Global has not commenced deliveries to Edison, alleging technical problems at the facility,” Edison said in a statement on Monday.
Calcasieu Pass produced its first LNG on January 19, 2022, moving from FID to LNG production in 29 months, and the first commissioning cargo left the facility on March 1, 2022.
Edison said the facility produced at nameplate capacity of 10 mpta by September 2022 and reached substantial completion in November 2022.
“As of today, the facility has produced, exported and sold 355 cargos to the higher-priced spot market and generated more than $20 billion in revenues,” Edison said.
Based on Venture Global’s October 9, 2024 letter, such spot market sales will continue until at least April 2025, according to Edison.
“As a consequence of Venture Global’s failure to commence deliveries, Edison has commenced international arbitration against Venture Global for breach of contract,” Edison said.
Calcasieu Pass
The 10 mtpa Calcasieu Pass facility consists of 18 modular units configured in 9 blocks.
Besides Edison, customers of the Calcasieu pass facility include Shell, BP, Repsol, Galp, PGNiG, now part of Orlen, Sinopec’s unit Unipec, and CNOOC.
Energy giants Shell and BP and other firms are in an dispute with Venture Global over the launch of commercial operations at the facility and they previously launched arbitration proceedings against Venture Global.
In February, Venture Global asked the US FERC to extend the in-service deadline for the facility for one additional year, or by February 21, 2025.
“Calcasieu Pass has now completed nearly all of the construction of the project, but the commissioning phase continues with respect to certain essential facilities,” Venture Global told the US FERC in a filing dated February 15.
Venture Global said in the filing that Calcasieu Pass has encountered “circumstances that have prevented it from being able to bring all its facilities into service at this time.”
That conclusion is reflected in the previously mentioned liquefaction in-service NTP, which recognized that reliability issues with certain other facilities, notably the heat recovery steam generators or “HRSGs”, require those facilities to remain in the commissioning process and the subject of a future in-service authorization, it said.
Venture Global said the project’s power generation facilities would remain in commissioning and “cannot be placed in-service until that on-going remediation work is completed, which Calcasieu Pass currently expects to happen during the fourth quarter of 2024.”