Venture Global plans to use US ‘permitting tailwinds’ to displace LNG competitors
Expansion-hungry US LNG producer Venture Global aims to dive in on the US’ new permitting-friendly climate for liquefaction projects to pursue its plans and knock out competing projects on price.
Venture Global chief executive Michael Sabel described the current permitting environment for LNG projects as “the best in decades” and said this makes the company very bullish on its expansion plans.
He said it positions Venture Global to be able to respond to demand and offer attractive long and medium-term prices to customers that will be difficult to compete with and that will displace the growth plans of competitors.
Sabel described the company as “thrilled” with the backing it has received from US President Donald Trump and the current administration.
He said the company has taken advantage of these permitting tailwinds to start the final investment decision process for phase one of its 28-mtpa CP2 project.
The CEO said the company’s investments in this will position CP2 as “potentially the most advanced project in the history of the LNG industry” by the time it breaks ground with first production targeted by mid-2027.
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“We believe CP2 has the potential to be a key source of LNG for critical United States allies such as Germany and Japan and others, and we look forward to our role in providing their citizens clean, affordable American LNG and bolstering their energy security,” he said.
Sabel also referenced the company’s 18.6-mtpa expansion project for its Plaquemines liquefaction development.
He said capital will always flow to the most competitive projects and Venture Global believes this expansion is one of the most economically efficient opportunities available to quickly meet growing LNG demand.
“We believe our Plaquemines expansion, along with projects we pursue in the future, has the potential to displace more expensive development projects with longer construction durations, enabling us to offer lower long-term LNG prices to global markets,” he said.
Venture Global chief financial officer Jack Thayer cited the use of the company’s own shipping fleet to export the LNG it is producing, in the project ramp-up phase, as one of the factors that gives the company flexibility.
Sabel said Venture Global will be operating its liquefaction trains for 50 years or more. He said the company has a very bullish view and that 20 years from now the world will be using more electricity with a large portion of that supplied by gas.
He said the company still sees very strong demand for 20-year contracts because long-term fuel prices are very attractive.
The chief said Venture Global believes the markets are much tighter, from a supply-demand standpoint globally than many consultants say they are, with a need beyond that to resupply storage. He said demand is more significant and growing.