Venture Global (VG) notified its long-term customers that it will start fulfilling its supply contracts for Calcasieu Pass LNG on April 15. (Source: Shutterstock, Venture Global)
Venture Global (VG) notified its long-term customers that it will start fulfilling its supply contracts for Calcasieu Pass LNG on April 15, after months of back-and-forth over the facility’s commissioning status.
Venture Global released a two-paragraph press release on Feb. 17 to make the announcement. The company thanked the construction teams, contractors and the government regulators who had worked with them on the project.
“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,” the statement said.
The facility received a final investment decision in 2019 and will commence commercial operations in under 68 months.
Calcasieu Pass began delivering LNG cargoes in early 2022 and has continued since, angering many of its long-term customers, such as Shell (SHEL), Edison (ED) and BP, who filed for arbitration at the end of 2024.
At issue is Venture Global’s categorization that the functioning plant had not been fully commissioned. The long-term contracts were only due to be honored by a commissioned and commercially operational plant, the company argued. Instead, Venture Global sold the LNG cargoes on the spot marked for higher prices.
The long-term customers disagreed and entered arbitration with claims of about $5.4 billion in December. Neither side has given an update on the arbitration’s status.
According to a Feb. 17 report from Bloomberg, Shell released a statement that Venture Global has “proven to be an unreliable supplier and, until we receive our contracted cargoes, we will continue to view them that way.”
While the Calcasieu Pass facility has developed, Venture Global has continued to make moves in the market. Its second facility, Plaquemines LNG, delivered its first cargo in November and is ramping up operations. The company went forward with its IPO on Jan. 24 and was trading at $15.96 per share as markets opened on Feb. 18.
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