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Sabel revealed this during Venture Global’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
“We’re very active in a significant number of negotiations for long-term contracts at this point, mostly all 20-year terms,” Sabel said.
“And so we expect to be executing and reporting on multiple 20-year contracts in the incoming quarters. And we’re really pleased with the demand and where we stand in those negotiations. So, the market and the investors in our company should expect to see announcements for more 20-year deals,” he said.
Last month, Venture Global launched commercial operations at its 10 mtpa Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana, some 68 months from its final investment decision and 38 months after production start.
The company continues to progress with the commissioning of the Plaquemines LNG project, which features 36 modular units, configured in 18 blocks. Each train has a capacity of 0.626 mtpa.
Venture Global recently also received approval from FERC to boost the capacity of its Plaquemines LNG terminal to 27.2 mtpa.
CP2 LNG
In addition to these facilities, Venture Global is also working to take a final investment decision on the CP2 project.
The CP2 LNG plant will be located next to Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass liquefaction plant in Louisiana.
CP2 is expected to have peak production capacity of up to 28 mtpa.
Venture Global estimates that the total project costs for the CP2 project, including both phases, will range from about $27 billion to $28 billion.
In March, Venture Global announced it had launched the formal FID process for CP2 LNG, while FERC recently issued a final supplemental environmental impact statement for the project.
Sabel said during the call that Venture anticipates mobilizing to the site and beginning site works and dredging by the middle of this year, subject to obtaining FERC approval.
“Appetite is very strong”
To date, the initial phase of CP2 LNG has been sold through 20-year SPAs with ExxonMobil, Chevron, Jera, NFE, Inpex, China Gas, SEFE, and EnBW.
Since Plaquemines LNG is producing significantly above its upper capacity range, or about 140 percent of capacity, Venture Global expects “to see that or even a little bit better for CP2,” Sabel said.
“So, we have built and are building more production capacity than we expected and planned for even just a few months ago,” he said.
“And so our appetite to signing more long-term contracts is greater than it was until recently. So, we are intending to do more 20-year contracts than we had been planning,” he said.
“Appetite is very strong in the market right now. I would say it’s better than it has been for the last several years. And our ability to win contracts with our cost and price advantage in the market is very strong,” Sabel said.
He said that Venture Global expects to increase to increase its 20-year contract portfolio with “existing, but also with new customers as well.”
Sabel said that talks include traditional buyers from Northwest European and Northeast Asian markets, as well as other regions.
“It’s still tilted a little bit towards European buyers. But the Asian buyers, and that includes multiple countries in Asia are still very active,” he said.