FERC: Venture Global near to completing repairs to Calcasieu Pass facility

Venture Global could complete repairs to equipment connected to onsite power generation by the end of February, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in a regulatory filing Reuters reported on January 29.

Repair work on a fifth and final generator project is ongoing and projected to be finished by the end of the month, inspectors for FERC wrote in the filing after completing an inspection of the plant in the last week of January.

During their inspection, officials found that the upstart-LNG firm had made significant progress with repair work and that a temporary fix proposed by FERC was no longer needed.

The Arlington, Virginia-based LNG producer has been engulfed in a long-running dispute with foundation customers of its Calcasieu Pass LNG plant since it first began shipping cargoes in March 2022.

While the company sold cargoes on the spot market in spring 2022 amid sky-high prices for LNG, it claimed that it was not obliged to make contract deliveries to customers as the facility is still in the commissioning phase until repair work is finished on the plant’s faulty equipment.

European supermajors such as Shell and BP along with other major energy companies, including Repsol, Edison and Orlen, who were all foundation customers of Venture Global, have accused the upstart-LNG producer of not honouring its contracts and brought an arbitration case of $5.9bn against the firm.

"For almost two years we’ve been told by Venture Global that deliveries were forthcoming. It’s never happened. They have proven to be an unreliable supplier and, until we receive our contracted cargoes, we will continue to view them that way," a Shell spokesperson expressed to Reuters.

Venture Global has now provided a timeline forecasting that it will shift from the commissioning phase to commercial operations at Calcasieu Pass by the conclusion of the first quarter of 2025.

The arbitration cases against Venture Global, the US’s biggest LNG firm following its initial public offering (IPO) in late January, were brought forth in November and are still awaiting a decision.