JoachimKohlerBremen / CC BY-SA 4.0 (LNG carrier, 2015 archive; crop).
Venture Global said the first phase of its Plaquemines LNG export project in Louisiana entered commercial operations on October 31, starting sales to its long-term customers. Shell took the first cargo after that milestone, which departed at 3:26 a.m. Sunday, the company said.
The move puts another part of the American natural gas export business into service under long-term contracts. Venture Global announced the milestone in a Sunday company release.
LNG means liquefied natural gas: gas cooled into a liquid so it can be loaded onto specially designed ships and sent to places that pipelines cannot reach. At the destination, it can be turned back into gas for use by power plants, factories, homes and businesses, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Here, “commercial operations” means Phase One has reached the point when it begins supplying customers under its long-term sales agreements. It is a contract milestone, rather than a claim that the entire Plaquemines project has reached that stage.
Venture Global said Phase One reached commercial operations just over 53 months after its final investment decision. The company called that one of the fastest completions for a new LNG project built from scratch.
Chief Executive Mike Sabel said the milestone would help the company keep delivering American LNG to overseas markets. Venture Global also said the supplies would help stabilize a volatile global LNG market. Those are the company’s expectations; its announcement did not establish any immediate reduction in U.S. utility bills or market gas prices.
JBizNews Desk | New York
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