((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
(Add Background) by Scott DiSavino
U.S. liquefied natural gas company Venture Global LNG’s Plaquemines export plant, under construction in Louisiana, began receiving natural gas from pipelines on Wednesday, according to data provided Thursday by financial company LSEG.
The United States is already the world’s largest LNG exporter. Plaquemines is expected to be the next U.S. LNG export plant to come online around 2024.
LSEG data shows Plaquemines absorbed approximately 0.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcfd) on Wednesday.
One billion cubic feet is enough gas to power about five million American homes for a day.
Analysts said they expected Venture Global to complete work on the first phase of Plaquemines, with a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day, between 2024 and 2026, and the second phase , with a capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day, between 2025 and 2026.
Plaquemines officials were not immediately available for comment.
In March 2023, when Venture Global made the final investment decision (FID) to build phase 2 in Plaquemines, the company said it had secured $7.8 billion in project financing for the second phase, bringing the total investment for Phases 1 and 2 to approximately $21 billion.
The seven U.S. LNG export plants already in operation can process approximately 13.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day into approximately 104.6 million tons per year (MTPA) of LNG.
Analysts expect U.S. LNG export capacity to increase to about 17.0 billion cubic feet of gas or 129.4 million tons per year of LNG by mid-2025, when units from Plaquemines Phase 1 and Phase 3 of Cheniere Energy LNG.N’s 1.5 billion cubic foot Corpus Christi expansion in Texas come online beginning in late 2024 .
Venture Global said Plaquemines’ customers include units of Exxon Mobil XOM.N , Chevron CVX.N , EnBW Energie Baden Wuerttemberg EBKG.DE , New Fortress Energy
NFE.N
, PETRONAS, China Gas Holdings 0384.HK , Excelerate
Energy
EE.N
, Polish Oil and Gas (PGNiG), China Petroleum and
Chemical (Sinopec) 600028.SS , China National Offshore Oil Corp
(CNOOC), Shell
SHEL.L
et Electricite de France (EDF).
Shell is also one of several customers of Venture Global’s Calcasieu, Louisiana export facility, which has a capacity of approximately 1.6 billion cubic feet per day, and which is in litigation with Venture Global for failing to deliver cargoes two years after Calcasieu began producing LNG. Venture Global said the plant was not yet ready for commercial operations.
Venture Global has approximately 70 MTPA of LNG export capacity operating, under construction or under development in Louisiana, including the Calcasieu operation, Plaquemines construction, Delta development and CP2 development .
