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Venture Global announced the launch of commercial operations at its first LNG export facility in a statement on Tuesday.
The firm said in February it had notified its long-term customers that its Calcasieu Pass facility will start commercial operations on April 15, 2025.
Due to its configuration consisting of many mid-scale, modular liquefaction trains and process facilities that are delivered and installed sequentially, “as well as Venture Global’s owner-led approach to construction, the project was able to overcome significant unforeseen challenges, including a global pandemic, two hurricanes, and a force majeure event that arose due to major manufacturing issues with the facility’s power island,” the firm said.
“Having completed a multi-year rectification and remediation of key components of the facility that underpin the redundancy features inherent in the project’s design, Calcasieu Pass is now ready to operate safely and reliably,” Venture Global said.
Long-term customers
Venture Global claims that the long-term sales and purchase agreements at Calcasieu Pass are “among the most attractive price points for customers in the world, with average liquefaction fees under $2/MMBtu.”
Moreover, the firm said its long-term customers will “benefit from low-cost North American LNG for the full duration of their 20-year contracts.”
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.
The 10 mtpa Calcasieu Pass facility consists of 18 modular units configured in 9 blocks.
Customers of the Calcasieu pass facility include Shell, BP, Repsol, Edison, Galp, PGNiG, now part of Orlen, Sinopec’s unit Unipec, and CNOOC.
Portuguese energy firm Galp said in a separate statement on Wednesday that it had lifted the first LNG cargo from Venture Global LNG on April 15 under its sales and purchase agreement (SPA).
“This first cargo signals the start of the take-or-pay rights and obligations set forth in the 20-year SPA, signed on May 2, 2018, with Venture Global LNG, for 1 mtpa, from the Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility in Louisiana,” Galp said.
Arbitration
Earlier this year, BP’s CEO Murray Auchincloss said he expects a ruling on an arbitration dispute with Venture Global to be delivered in the second half of this year.
In addition, Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan also recently said he expects to have an update on the arbitration dispute with Venture Global later this year. He also said that Venture Global shipped “400 plus cargoes” from the facility.
BP has a 20-year LNG contract for volumes for the Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana, the same as Shell.
The two firms and other Calcasieu Pass customers are in a dispute with Venture Global over the launch of commercial operations at the facility, and they previously launched arbitration proceedings against Venture Global.
Venture Global said in its IPO statement in December 2024 that pending arbitration claims against the company regarding the Calcasieu Pass volumes have reached more than $5.5 billion.
(This article was updated with a statement by Galp.)