February 23, 2024 [Oil Price]- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will try to be quick in deciding whether to extend Venture Global’s permit to continue construction work on its already operating Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility.

The decision should come within 45 days, Reuters reported, citing the commission.

Venture Global last week applied for a one-year extension of its construction permit on the grounds that the plant is not yet ready for commissioning. Venture Global has cited the same reason for not starting deliveries of cargos under long-term contracts with several European energy heavyweights while selling LNG on the spot market.

That prompted the energy companies, including Shell, BP, and Repsol, to challenge the U.S. company in arbitrage court. They have also demanded that FERC take their perspective on Venture Global’s facility into account when making the decision to grant or refuse an extension to the construction permit.

“Calcasieu Pass has long been in commercial operation and has produced at or above nameplate capacity for more than a year, exporting LNG cargoes every three to five days, for a total of more than 250 cargoes worth billions of dollars,” a Shell spokesperson said last week.

Shell is among the companies that want FERC to deny Venture Global an extension to its construction permit so it has no other option but to start supplying contracted volumes.

The Calcasieu Pass LNG facility has been in active operation since March 2022 but Venture Global has insisted that it is not completed so it is under no obligation to comply with long-term contracts for LNG deliveries.

Shell, BP, Repsol, and Italy’s Edison and Eni were foundational investors in the Calcasieu Pass facility and now claim they have lost billions in sales because of Venture Global’s tactic of using its construction permit to withhold cargos from them and sell them on the spot market instead.

Earlier this week, Portugal’s Galp was the latest to join BP and Shell in their request to be allowed to challenge Venture Global’s request for a permit extension.

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