Venture Global CEO: CP2 capacity could grow to 30 million tpy

The CP2 LNG plant Venture Global Inc. is building out in Cameron Parish, La., will be able to supply 30 million tonnes/year (tpy) versus its currently permitted capacity of 28 million tpy, Mike Sabel, the company’s chief executive officer and executive co-chairman said Nov. 10.

Speaking after Virginia-based Venture Global reported its third-quarter results as well as the signing of a 1-million tpy supply agreement with Spain’s Naturgy, Sabel said teams have been applying learnings from the company’s Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines plants. That includes from tens of thousands data points those plants are generating every minute.

“We have a dedicated team of data scientists and process engineers and AI programmers that have been incorporating that data into our current operations, but also into design changes as we’ve learned some very surprising interactions of different parts of the facilities […] that we expect will carry over into CP2,” Sabel said. “We’ll have to go back and get the export authorization moved from 28 up to 30 but we think CP2 will be doing even better than Plaquemines, which is doing the best that any project has ever done.”

As of Oct. 31, eight of the 26 planned liquefaction trains at CP2—which is forecast to cost a total of $29 billion—had been completed. Sabel said more than 3,500 construction workers are active at the site, which spans 700 acres. The Venture Global team this summer took final investment decision on the project and during the third quarter won final authorization from the US Department of Energy to export LNG to non-free trade agreement nations.

During the 3 months that ended Sept. 30, Venture Global exported 100 LNG cargos, up from 89 in the spring and 31 in third-quarter 2024. That translated into net income of $429 million on more than $3.3 billion in revenues. The bottom line reversed a year-ago loss of $347 million.

For the year, Sabel and his team are now forecasting that Calcasieu Pass will export 148 cargos this year versus their previous guidance of 144-149. At Plaquemines, they expect 234-238 cargos will be exported. Executives' second-quarter outlook had called for 227-240.

Shares of Venture Global (Ticker: VG) were up nearly 5% to $8.36 in afternoon trading on Nov. 10. They are, however, still down about 10% over the past 6 months, which has left the company’s market capitalization at about $20 billion.