Venture Global LNG has received approval from federal regulators to start commissioning a part of its Calcasieu Pass liquefaction plant in Louisiana.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Venture Global’s recent request to start commissioning the Block 1 liquefaction modules and the south LNG tank.
Once completed, Calcasieu Pass will produce about 10 mtpa of LNG from 18 modular units configured in 9 blocks.
Venture Global previously received approvals from FERC to introduce feed gas to the gas turbine generators, as well as to supply liquid nitrogen to the air separation unit.
The next major step is to introduce feed gas to the liquefaction units.
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.
Following completion, the Calcasieu Pass project will become the seventh large LNG export facility in the US.
The approval follows a huge LNG supply deal Venture Global has signed with China’s Sinopec worth more than $30 billion, which also includes volumes from Calcasieu Pass.
Venture Global has signed two 20-year sales and purchase agreements for 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.