US liquefaction plant developer Venture Global LNG said it has shipped the first commissioning cargo from its Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana.
The 2021-built LNG carrier Yiannis, owned by Greece’s Maran Gas and chartered by a unit of Japan’s Jera and EDF Trading, left the Calcasieu Pass facility on Tuesday.
Venture Global and Jera Global Markets announced the milestone shipment in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“Calcasieu Pass now holds the global record for the fastest large-scale greenfield LNG facility to ever be built, moving from FID to LNG production in just 29 months,” the statement said.
Calcasieu Pass produced its first LNG on January 19 while the 174,000-cbm LNG carrier arrived at the export facility in early February. After that, Venture Global won approval from FERC to ship the first commissioning cargo.
The two partners did not reveal the final destination of the first cargo.
Venture Global CEO Mike Sabel welcomed this partnership with Jera, one of the world’s largest buyers of LNG, on the inaugural commissioning cargo from Calcasieu Pass.
“This historic and proud moment for our company represents the culmination of many years of relentless efforts by our team to innovate, design, construct and now deliver low-cost, clean LNG to our customers,” he said.
Furthermore, Jera Global Markets CEO Kazunori Kasai said the first cargo from the Calcasieu Pass LNG project has “great significance for easing the supply-demand balance of LNG amid the tight global market situation.”
Based on a supply agreement with Venture Global Calcasieu Pass, Jera Global Markets would support Venture Global and receive LNG cargoes from this “innovative” project, which provides the industry with an “exciting” new model for LNG liquefaction, Kasai said.
More LNG plants to come
Once completed, Calcasieu Pass will produce about 10 mtpa of LNG from 18 modular units configured in 9 blocks. The plant is the seventh large LNG export facility in the US.
Calcasieu Pass has contracts with Shell, BP, Edison, Galp, Repsol, PGNiG, Sinopec’s unit Unipec, as well as CNOOC.
This is Venture Global’s first LNG export plant but the company plans to build three more export facilities.
Recently, McDermott’s CB&I secured a tank contract from Venture Global for the first phase of the planned Plaquemines LNG project.
The full project would have 20 mtpa capacity, four tanks, and three jetties.
Venture Global has still to take a final investment decision on this development in Louisiana.