<article><p class="lead">The Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG project in southwestern Louisiana has signed a 20-year deal to sell LNG to UK major BP.</p><p>BP would buy 2mn t/yr of LNG, equivalent to about 280mn cf/d (2.9bn m³/yr) of gas, beginning when Calcasieu Pass starts long-term contractual operations, Venture Global said today.</p><p>The project has been expected to come on line in 2022, but on Friday the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) delayed the planned release of a final environmental impact study to 26 October from 3 July to get additional engineering information. Federal agencies with jurisdiction over various parts of the project would have until 24 January 2019 to make decisions, rather than the previous deadline of 1 October, so FERC likely would not authorize construction until after 24 January.</p><p>Venture Global, which previously said it expected to make a positive decision in the fourth quarter after getting FERC construction approval, did not respond to an <i>Argus </i>inquiry asking if the investment decision would be delayed to early 2019 and the start-up date would be delayed to 2023.</p><p>Washington, DC-based Venture Global is making progress in sanctioning the $4.5bn Calcasieu Pass facility, having signed 20-year deals with four buyers for 6mn t/yr of offtake. Calcasieu Pass would have baseload capacity of 10mn t/yr and peak capacity of 12mn t/yr from 18 modular liquefaction trains. </p><p>Venture Global has said it could make a positive investment decision to build a smaller initial phase. The company said today it is proceeding toward financing Calcasieu Pass.</p><p>All the deals are for free-on-board (fob) supplies, meaning that Venture Global would provide the gas, pipeline transportation and liquefaction, likely at a flat take-or-pay liquefaction fee plus an LNG fee indexed to the US Henry hub gas benchmark price. Cheniere is providing fob supplies at its Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana at liquefaction fees of $2.25-$3.00/mmBtu and an LNG fee of 115pc of the Nymex Henry Hub price.</p><p>BP, a major global LNG trader, said earlier this month that it wants to expand its LNG portfolio to about 25mn t/yr. The Calcasieu Pass deal would provide BP with 6.4mn t/yr of US supply, which would make it the second-largest offtaker of US LNG after Shell. BP has a 20-year deal for 4.4mn t/yr from the Freeport LNG project in Texas, starting when the second liquefaction train there comes on line, likely in January 2020.</p><p>Calcasieu Pass previously signed two deals with Shell totaling 2mn t/yr, as well as deals for 1mn t/yr each with Italy's Edison and Portugal's Galp.</p><p>Shell would have 10mn t/yr of US supply if Calcasieu Pass is built. It has contracts totaling 8mn t/yr from Sabine Pass LNG, which came on line in 2016, and the Elba Island LNG terminal in Georgia scheduled to start exporting in the third quarter. Shell could significantly expand its US capacity if it sanctions the 15mn t/yr Lake Charles LNG project in Louisiana, where it would have all the capacity.</p><p>Venture Global also has proposed building the $8.5bn, 20mn t/yr Plaquemines LNG facility in southeastern Louisiana, but it has not provided a timeline for that project. It said today it has begun to execute binding contracts for Plaquemines. </p></article>
