Venture Global LNG Inc. is expecting to hit a major milestone for its CP2 LNG project in Louisiana next month while it mounts a defense against challenges to the Plaquemines export facility, also nearing a new stage of development.
Virginia-based Venture Global, which now has a substantial list of liquefied natural gas projects in various stages of development in Louisiana, indicated to FERC staff this month that it is targeting to begin construction for CP2 in early September.
In a timeline filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, along with a bevy of other implementation plans for the project, Venture Global said starting construction next month would allow it to stay on track to reach the project’s in-service near the end of 2028.
The company has yet to reach a final investment decision (FID) for the 20 million metric ton/year (mmty) facility, which would likely hinge on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) approval of its license to export to non-free trade agreement countries. FERC granted the project authorization in June after a prolonged consideration process.
Poten & Partners LNG analyst Sergio Chapa noted the start of construction would not necessarily mean ground work at the site in Calcasieu Parish, LA. With Venture Global’s previous projects, Calcasieu Pass LNG and Plaquemines LNG, off-site work and the manufacturing of modular equipment began before actual construction at the site, Chapa wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Despite the DOE’s authorization pause and delays in a FERC decision, the company has inked more than 8 mmty in binding and tentative contracts with offtake customers for CP2. Also in June, the firm disclosed it had inked a tentative deal with a subsidiary of Ukrainian power producer DTEK with more than 2 mmty in supply. The first volumes are expected to come from its Plaquemines terminal, currently under construction south of New Orleans. After 2026, 2 mmty would be delivered from CP2 for the next 20 years.
Both European and Asian offtakers of CP2, as well as politicians and local community members, have participated in a letter campaign lobbying federal authorities to render a decision.
While responding to a challenge against its Plaquemines LNG facility, the company also disclosed a progress update for the 20 mmty capacity terminal under construction south of New Orleans.
A coalition of environmental groups in late July filed a request to FERC to pause its authorization of construction at Plaquemines LNG and the related pipeline, and to revisit its consideration of the project.
In response, counsel for Venture Global told FERC staff that Plaquemines was 80% complete as of July, and could begin producing first LNG volumes sometime after mid-September. First shipments are expected shortly after start of production.
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“Thus, Venture Global has developed both the most recent U.S. LNG export project to begin LNG production as well as the next project that will do so,” Venture Global counsel wrote in the response.
The firm reached FID on a second phase of Plaquemines LNG last year. Like its other projects, Plaquemines LNG is being constructed and commissioned in phases, with each block of modular trains coming on line over a period of several months.
Each phase of Plaquemines LNG could add around 1.4 Bcf/d in U.S. natural gas demand, according to NGI calculations.
The company’s first terminal, Calcasieu Pass LNG, has been exporting cargoes of the super-chilled fuel since 2022. However, Venture Global has reported technical issues at the facility, namely with some of its power components. This has reportedly prevented the facility from reaching full commercial operations and delivering volumes to contracted customers.
At the end of July, the company told federal inspectors that contractors had completed repairs on two of the five heat recovery steam generators at Calcasieu Pass, which have been blamed as a key source behind performance issues.
