Cheniere Energy ups the ante in its battle with Venture
\nGlobal to be the US\u2019s top LNG developer.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWHAT: Cheniere Energy has sent an application to FERC for
\nauthorization of Stage 4 of its mammoth Corpus Christi
\nfacility.<\/p>\n
\nWHY: Construction of Stage 3 has been moving ahead smoothly and
\nis expected to be finished by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\nWHAT NEXT: Cheniere is hopeful that federal regulators could
\ngive the project the green light by May 2027.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThe US\u2019s largest LNG exporter, Cheniere Energy (LNG), could be
\non the cusp of a substantial expansion of its production as the
\nHouston-based company has applied for authorization for a massive
\nexpansion to its Corpus Christi facility, Reuters reported
\non February 5, citing a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory
\nCommission (FERC).<\/p>\n
\nThe Stage 4 expansion would increase the facility’s production
\ncapacity by 24mn tonnes per year (tpy). The southern Texas plant
\ncurrently boasts a production capacity of 18mn tpy. However, the
\nexport terminal\u2019s capacity will jump to 25mn tpy upon the
\ncompletion of Stage 3, which is expected to be finished by the end
\nof the year.<\/p>\n
\nIf Stage 4 gets approval, Corpus Christi\u2019s production capacity
\nof 49mn tpy would rival Venture Global\u2019s (VG) Plaquemines export
\nterminal for the largest in the country. If Plaquemines proposed
\nexpansion comes to fruition it could produce as much as 58mn tpy at
\npeak production, which represents a more than doubling of its
\ncurrent nameplate capacity of 27.2mn tpy.<\/p>\n
\nAccording to the filing with FERC, the expansion plans would add
\nfour new liquefaction trains to the facility, each with a
\nproduction capacity of 6mn tpy. The Stage 4 expansion would require
\nabout 3.3bn cubic feet (93mn cubic metres) of feed gas per day.
\nCheniere is aiming to be granted approval by FERC by May 2027.<\/p>\n
\nCheniere has been the US\u2019s largest LNG exporter since it began
\noperations in 2016, however, it is facing stiff competition from
\nLNG upstart Venture Global, which has been experiencing meteoric
\ngrowth since it began producing LNG in 2022.<\/p>\n
\nCurrently, Cheniere maintains a tight lead with a production
\ncapacity of 52mn tpy, while having an addition 8mn tpy under
\nconstruction. Meanwhile, Venture Global has a production capacity
\nof 40mn tpy, but could leapfrog Cheniere with another 28mn tpy
\ncurrently under construction.<\/p>\n
\nThe LNG market\u2019s outlook remains rosy with a number of
\noptimistic predictions by key industry players. The world\u2019s largest
\nLNG trader, Shell, has\u00a0forecast\u00a0that
\ndemand for the super-chilled fuel could rise by as much as 50%
\nglobally by 2040.<\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile, in its\u00a0Energy
\nOutlook\u00a0released in September, supermajor BP predicted that
\ndemand for the super-cooled gas will jump to 900bn cubic metres by
\n2035.<\/p>\n
\nRising demand in Asia, particularly in China, which is the
\nworld\u2019s largest importer of LNG and is in the midst of fuel
\nswitching from coal to natural gas to cut down greenhouse gas
\nemissions is expected to fuel this growth.<\/p>\n
\nAdditionally, another large market, India, is also leaning into
\nLNG for fuel switching as it shifts from coal to natural gas as
\npart of its decarbonisation journey. Moreover, a number of other
\nkey markets in Asia that are growing, such as the Philippines and Vietnam are also turning to LNG as domestic gas reserves
\ndwindle and industrial sectors boom. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nAnd in the short term, the European market looks appealing for
\nUS LNG exporters. As the EU shifts away from Russian supply, with
\nthe bloc set to ban Russian LNG imports by January 2027 as part of
\nits 19th\u00a0sanctions package, US producers look set to benefit.<\/p>\n
\nThis is even more certain thanks to a commitment by the bloc in
\nJuly to buy\u00a0$750bn\u00a0of
\nUS LNG, crude oil, and coal exports over the next three years.
\nWhile the EU is cognizant of its long-term net-zero goals, US LNG
\nappears set to serve as a bridge fuel for Europe in the
\nshort-term.<\/p>\n
\nCertainly, these factors have created fertile ground for
\noptimism and the US\u2019s biggest players are going all in. Venture
\nGlobal reached for the stars in a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2025, hoping
\nto attract capital to give it the funds it needs to move ahead with
\nits fifth terminal Calcasieu Pass 3 (CP3).<\/p>\n
\nDespite Venture Global stumbling on its initial public offering, the company has
\nremained incredibly ambitious and in November applied to FERC for
\nexpansion of its Plaquemines project, which would raise the
\nnameplate capacity of the Louisiana project to 58mn\u00a0tpy.<\/p>\n
\nWith Venture Global pushing hard, Cheniere remains keen to keep
\na step ahead of its Arlington, Virginia-based counterpart.
\nDeveloping Stage 4 of its Corpus Christi project would not only
\nkeep Cheniere ahead of its chaser, it will also be a statement
\nproject that the US\u2019s largest LNG exporter has no intention of
\nrelinquishing that title anytime soon.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 bne IntelliNews, source Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cheniere Energy ups the ante in its battle with Venture Global to be the US\u2019s top LNG developer.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156,6709],"class_list":{"0":"post-155968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news","11":"tag-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}