US Calcasieu Project Gets EIS Schedule
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) on November 29 issued a scheduling notice for the environmental review of Venture Global LNG’s 10mn tons/year Calcasieu Pass export terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
The schedule contemplates Ferc staff issuing a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) in March 2018, which would give other agencies until July 3 to complete their reviews, with the deadline for final federal authorisation set for October 1, 2018.
The Calcasieu Pass LNG project comprises nine mid-scale liquefaction blocks, each rated at 1.2mn t/y; a pair of 200,000 m3 LNG storage tanks, a 720-MW electric generating plant and a marine terminal capable of accommodating carriers up to 185,000 m3 capacity. Venture Global filed its Ferc application in September 2015.
Also part of the overall project, and incorporated into the environmental review, is the TransCameron Pipeline, a 23.4 mile, 1.9bn ft3/day pipeline connecting the terminal to interstate and intrastate gas pipelines.
Tom Earl, CCO of Venture Global LNG, told NGW on the sidelines of the CWC Global LNG Summit in Lisbon November 30 that the company is targeting late 2018 for a final investment decision (FID) on the Calcasieu Pass project, with first LNG production in late 2021.
In September, Italy’s Edison, part of the French EDF group, signed a 20-year LNG sales and purchase agreement for 1mn t/y from the Calcasieu Pass terminal. Venture Global also has in hand a 20-year SPA for 1mn t/y with Shell North America LNG.
A second Venture Global LNG terminal, the 20mn mt/yr Plaquemines terminal, in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, is also before Ferc as part of an application filed in February this year. Earl told NGW the target for FID on the first 10mn t/y phase of that project is late 2019, with first LNG three years later, while the second phase would see FID in late 2020, with first LNG in late 2023.