Venture Global to begin commercial operations at Calcasieu Pass plant in April

US LNG producer Venture Global has notified its foundation customers that the firm’s Calcasieu Pass terminal in Louisiana has set a commercial operation date (COD) of April 15, the company announced on February 17.

The commencement of commercial operations comes in less than 68 months from its final investment decision (FID) successfully taken in August 2019.

The Arlington, Virginia-headquartered company stated it has notified its long-term contract customers, including supermajors Shell and BP.

“These efforts now allow us to supply our long-term customers with the full 20-year contract term of the lowest-cost, clean LNG as promised under our contracts, and, with our COD, makes Calcasieu Pass among the fastest greenfield LNG projects completed,” Venture Global said in a statement.

The company first began producing super-chilled fuel from its maiden Calcasieu Pass facility in January 2022.

However, the company has since then sold its cargoes on the spot market as the facility awaited commencement of commercial operations citing faulty equipment requiring repairs to the damaged equipment.

The move drew the ire of the company’s long-term contract customers. Shell accused Venture Global of “wrongfully earning” $3.5bn through selling the cargoes on the spot market, where prices soared in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In November 2024, it was revealed that pending arbitration claims against Venture Global had climbed to $5.9bn with eight European companies accusing the US firm of not honouring contracts.

However, in its investigation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concluded that Venture Global had taken significant actions to fix equipment problems at the Louisiana-based export terminal.

“Venture Global team was approaching the diagnosis and remediation of the equipment performance in a careful, technically sound matter,” FERC stated in a status report in October 2024.

Despite the controversy surrounding its disputes with its long-term contract customers, Venture Global listed on the New York Stock Exchange last month.

The company had a disappointing IPO and first day of trading. Nevertheless, the young firm did record the world’s largest IPO by an LNG developer with a valuation of $58mn.