GLNG: Venture Global seeks permission to begin Calcasieu Pass commissioning

Venture Global LNG has asked US regulators for permission to begin commissioning liquefaction systems at its Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana.
The company told the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in a filing last week that the environmental conditions required to begin commissioning had been met, and that it was therefore seeking permission to proceed. Once permission is granted, the facility would start producing LNG in test mode later this year, before entering commercial service in 2022.
Calcasieu Pass is the first of a second wave of liquefaction terminals being built on the US Gulf Coast, after four plants came online in the region during the first wave, beginning in 2016. The facility will have the capacity to produce and export up to 10mn tonnes per year of LNG from 18 trains. The trains, each with a capacity of 626,000 tpy, are configured in nine blocks.
News that the company is seeking to start commissioning liquefaction systems came in the same week that it emerged that Venture Global had agreed to sell 1mn tpy from Calcasieu Pass to China’s Sinopec over a three-year period. This is in addition to two long-term deals Venture Global has struck with Sinopec for a combined 4mn tpy of LNG from the US company’s proposed Plaquemines terminal, also in Louisiana.
Venture Global has not formally announced the deals, but they were disclosed in letters to the US Department of Energy (DoE) that were made public last week.