Chevron pushes for say in Venture Global request for Plaquemines LNG startup extension

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By Curtis Williams

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Chevron on Tuesday asked federal regulators to let it offer an opinion on Venture Global’s recent request for more time to commission the Plaquemines LNG plant in Louisiana, at which the U.S. oil major has a long-term sales and purchase agreement that could be affected by any delay.

The filing from Chevron came just days after an arbitration tribunal found that Venture Global breached an agreement with BP to declare timely commercial operations at its separate Calcasieu Pass plant, also in Louisiana. The LNG producer’s shares plummeted 25% on Friday as investors worried about other ongoing arbitration liabilities.

Last month, Venture Global asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to give it until the end of 2027 to commission the Plaquemines plant, citing challenges stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. The original deadline to put the 27.2 million metric tons per annum export facility into service was September 30, 2026.

“Chevron has a substantial interest that may be directly affected by the outcome of this proceeding,” it wrote in the filing. The company did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Venture Global characterized the extension it is seeking as a standard procedural step that is routinely taken to align schedules with FERC in-service deadlines.

“To be clear, this request to FERC for an extension of our in-service deadline at Plaquemines has no impact on our publicly announced expectations for the commercial operations date of Phase 1 and Phase 2 which remain the same, ” Venture Global told Reuters on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Nathan Crooks and David Gregorio)