Page 12 - NorthAmOil Week 03 2023

NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil

Proposed Plaquemines LNG expansion

receives preliminary approval

LOUISIANA VENTURE Global LNG’s proposed expansion a significant impact on the human environ-
of the under-construction Plaquemines LNG ment, said FERC staff. The full FERC will issue
export terminal in Louisiana has received pre- a final decision after a public comment period
liminary environmental approval from at the ending on February 6. The preliminary finding The Virginia-
US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was based on an environmental assessment, and
(FERC). not a full environmental impact statement (EIS), based company
The first half of the facility’s capacity could be because it would represent a modest expansion
online as soon as 2024, with the expanded capac- rather than a new facility. has been
ity online by the end of 2025. “The regulatory oversight, hazards and engi-
The expansion would allow the terminal to neering designs remain largely unchanged from securing offtake
increase its output from 24mn tonnes per year that analysed in the 2019 final EIS for the Plaque- agreements for
(tpy) to 27.2mn tpy. Construction of the first mines LNG project,” said FERC staff.
part of the facility started in August of 2021, This comes as the US is set to become the Plaquemines
but market demand has been so high that Ven- world’s biggest exporter of LNG again later this
ture Global later sought to increase the plant’s year, once Freeport LNG is back up and running. over the past few
capacity. That plant was taken offline after a fire in June
The Virginia-based company has been secur- 2021. Australia is currently the world’s largest months.
ing offtake agreements for Plaquemines over the LNG exporter.
past few months. In October, it announced the Freeport LNG is now expected to resume
expansion of its existing LNG partnership with operations later this month following several
Germany’s EnBW to 2mn tpy, increasing the delays.
quantity of long-term LNG offtake by an extra The next major start-ups of LNG export
500,000 tpy from Plaquemines and from its plants in the US will be Plaquemines as well as
planned CP2 LNG terminal, which would also QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil’s Golden Pass
be built in Louisiana. plant in Texas, which is also scheduled to start
The Plaquemines expansion would not have exporting LNG in 2024.™

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