(Reuters) - U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Venture Global LNG received permission on Tuesday from federal energy regulators to commission the fourth liquefaction block at the company's Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana.
A tanker, the Yiannis, arrived on Monday near Calcasieu and could be first vessel to pick up a cargo from the facility, according to data from Refinitiv.
Last week, Venture Global sought permission from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to load the first commissioning cargo from Calcasieu on or after Feb. 9.
Officials at Venture Global have not yet said whether the Yiannis would be the first tanker to pick up LNG at the facility.
After pulling in feed gas from pipelines since around August to test equipment, according to Refinitiv data, Venture Global said Calcasieu started producing LNG around Jan. 19.
Venture Global is installing 18 modular liquefaction trains configured in nine blocks at Calcasieu to produce about 10 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG, equivalent to about 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. Analysts estimate the plant cost about $4.5 billion.
FERC has already approved the commissioning of three blocks - Tuesday's approval makes four.
In total, Venture Global has about 70 MTPA of LNG export capacity under construction or development in Louisiana, including the 10-MTPA Calcasieu Pass, 20-MTPA Plaquemines, 20-MTPA Delta and 20-MTPA CP2.
Venture Global has already started early site work on the $8.5 billion Plaquemines project, which analysts expect to start producing first LNG around 2024.
Venture Global has entered long-term agreements to sell LNG to units of several companies around the world, including China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC (NYSE:CEO)), China Petroleum (NYSE:SNP) and Chemical Corp (Sinopec (NYSE:SHI)), Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) PLC, BP (NYSE:BP) PLC, Edison SpA, Galp Energia SGPS SA (OTC:GLPEY) and Polish Oil and Gas Co (PGNiG).