Venture Global to build $13bn LNG plant on US Gulf coast

Venture Global has said it will build one of the US’s largest new liquefied natural gas export plants on the Louisiana coast, the first such project to be sanctioned since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a rush to secure more American energy supplies for a strained global market.

The $13.2bn in funds secured for the development, which includes a pipeline, also marked the largest project-financing transaction in the world in 2022, Venture Global said on Wednesday. The investment is a sign of renewed investor appetite for fossil fuel projects amid fears of supply shortages and a run-up in oil and gas prices in recent months.

The Plaquemines project will supply more than 13mn tonnes a year of LNG, equivalent to about 15 per cent of total US export capacity. LNG is a super-chilled form of natural gas that can be loaded on to ships for export globally.

The EU and US announced a deal in March to increase supplies of LNG to Europe in the coming years — part of a White House effort to help Europe break its dependence on Russian gas. US exporters including Cheniere Energy, the country’s largest, have been running plants flat out to increase supplies to the EU in recent months.

Venture Global did not say when Plaquemines would begin exports, but the company has boasted of its speedy construction methods and recently brought on line its first LNG export project at Calcasieu Pass, also in Louisiana, following a final decision to build it in 2019.

“Plaquemines will build on the success of Calcasieu Pass, which broke global records for speed and execution,” said Mike Sabel, Venture Global’s chief executive. “The project has attracted robust financial and commercial support which has enabled us to formally sanction this project at a critical moment for energy markets.”

Venture Global said Plaquemines had received all necessary permits, including authorisation from federal bodies, and had secured long-term sales-and-purchase contracts covering 80 per cent of the project’s output, involving an eventual expansion to 20mn tonnes a year.

Customers for the LNG include buyers in Poland and China, as well as Shell, EDF, and ExxonMobil.