The US Department of Energy issued a long-term order authorizing exports of US-produced LNG to Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LLC from an export terminal it is building in Cameron Parish, La.
The Mar. 5 order will allow Venture Global Calcasieu Pass to export as much as 1.7 billion bcfd of gas as LNG to any countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with the US and are not prohibited from trading with the US under US law or policy, DOE said.
It is required under the 1938 Natural Gas Act to determine if proposed exports of gas to a non-FTA country are in the US national interest before they will be allowed. DOE’s authorization came after the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a Feb. 22 order permitting the siting and construction of the project and the associated Trans Cameron East Lateral pipeline.
“DOE’s Venture Global Calcasieu Pass authorization comes less than 2 weeks after the project received its final order from FERC, demonstrating that [DOE] acts expeditiously after an LNG project receives authorization from [FERC],” said Steven Winbert, DOE assistant secretary of fossil energy.
Including this authorization, DOE has authorized a total of 24.74 bcfd of LNG exports to non-FTA countries from the US, he added.
Officials at Arlington, Va.-based Venture Global LNG said the Calciseu Pass project’s construction would begin soon under a contract with Kiewit Construction Co., employing 1,500. It has 20-year binding sales and purchase agreements with Shell, BP, Edison SPA, Galp, Repsol, and PGNiG.
Venture Global LNG also is developing the 20 million-tonne/year Plaquemines LNG export facility and associated Gator Express Pipeline in Plaquemines Parish, La.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
