Venture Global LNG has received approval from federal regulators to start commissioning the Block 2 liquefaction modules at its Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said in a filing dated December 13 it has approved Venture Global’s recent request to launch the Block 2 liquefaction modules.
FERC granted the same approval for the Block 1 liquefaction modules and the south LNG tank in November.
Besides the second block, FERC has also granted Venture Global to introduce hazardous fluids into the mixed refrigerant storage vessels and cold flare, it said in a separate filing on Monday.
Once completed next year, Calcasieu Pass will produce about 10 mtpa of LNG from 18 modular units configured in 9 blocks.
Venture Global gets Calcasieu Pass modular trains from Baker Hughes’ manufacturing facility in Italy.
The firm said earlier this year that it could start first exports from the LNG facility by the end of this year, with full operations planned in 2022.
Once online, the Calcasieu Pass project would become the seventh large LNG export facility in the US.
Four US LNG export plants
These approvals follow a huge LNG supply deal Venture Global signed with China’s Sinopec worth more than $30 billion, which also includes volumes from Calcasieu Pass.
Venture Global’s two 20-year sales and purchase agreements include the supply of a total of 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG from its Plaquemines LNG export facility Louisiana.
In addition, Unipec, a Sinopec subsidiary has agreed to purchase 3.5 million tonnes of LNG
from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG facility for a shorter duration, it said.
Also, Venture Global recently said it plans to invest more than $10 billion to build another US LNG export plant.
The new project named CP2 LNG would be located next to the Calcasieu Pass liquefaction plant. CP2 LNG includes a terminal with a nameplate liquefaction capacity of 20 million tonnes per year and a peak capacity of about 24 mtpa.
This would be the firm’s fourth project as it is developing the Delta LNG project in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana as well.