US exporter Venture Global LNG says it is “on track” to start construction later this year on its proposed CP2 LNG terminal in Louisiana after it received a positive final environmental impact statement.
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the FEIS to Venture Global’s third LNG export plant and the associated pipeline on July 28.
“The FERC staff concludes that approval of the proposed project, with the mitigation measures recommended in the EIS, would result in some adverse environmental impacts,” it said in the report.
“However, most of these impacts would be less-than-significant, with the exception of visual resources, including cumulative visual impacts, and visual impacts on environmental justice communities in the region,” the regulator said.
The regulator has developed recommendations that CP2 LNG and/or CP Express should implement to further reduce the environmental impacts that would otherwise result from construction and operation of the project.
It has attached 143 measures in the FEIS.
Half of volumes sold out
The CP2 LNG plant will be located next to Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass liquefaction plant in Louisiana.
It will have 18 liquefaction blocks, each with a capacity of about 1.1 mtpa of LNG, but also four 200,000-cbm full containment LNG storage tanks.
Venure Global’s CEO Mike Sabel said in a statement that this is a “major regulatory milestone for the project that puts us on track for a Commission vote and the commencement of construction later this year.”
“CP2 continues to have robust commercial and financial momentum with approximately half of the project already sold out,”
Venture Global recently signed a sales and purchase deal with German gas importer Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE).
SEFE joins other CP2 LNG customers, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Jera, New Fortress Energy, Inpex, China Gas, and EnBW.
To date, 9.25 mtpa of the 20 mtpa nameplate capacity for CP2 has been sold, according to Venture Global.
Besides offtake agreements, Australian engineering firm Worley and Venture Global signed a deal for the construction of the latter’s proposed LNG export terminal in Louisiana.
The two firms have agreed substantive terms for a reimbursable engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for Phase 1 of the CP2 LNG terminal.