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Venture Global granted permission to introduce natural gas to Plaquemines’ seventh block

Venture Global has received approval from federal regulators to commence the introduction of natural gas into the Plaquemines plant’s seventh block, Reuters reported on January 28.

It marks another step forward for the Louisiana-based export terminal as it begins increasing its LNG production. The 20mn tonne per year (tpy) facility produced its first LNG in mid-December and has been ramping up production since then.

On start-up in December the facility was pulling in 100mn cubic feet (2.83mn cubic metres) of natural gas, but by January 28, the plant was using 1.1bn cubic feet (31mn cubic metres) of natural gas, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

It is welcome news for the Virginia, Arlington-based company, which has suffered a number of setbacks recently.

The upstart-LNG firm stumbled in its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in late January. While the company did manage to sell 70mn shares and raise $1.75bn, it fell well short of its target valuation.

Its $58bn valuation marks a major shortcoming from its target valuation of $110bn. After lukewarm interest from investors, Venture Global was forced to slash its IPO price by 41%.  

Similarly, Plaquemines itself has also faced challenges with cost overruns of more than $2bn as a result of inflationary pressures due to the increasing cost of skilled labour in the US Gulf Coast region.

However, the Plaquemines facility now appears to be firing on all cylinders, with the new export terminal pulling in almost the equivalent of the nameplate capacity Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass plant, which can take in 1.5 bcf (42 mcm) of natural gas per day.

At full production, Plaquemines is capable of processing more than 27mn tpy of the super-chilled fuel.