OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2016. The Venture Global Plaquemines LNG export project in southeastern Louisiana has an estimated cost of \\$8.5bn for peak capacity of 24mn t/yr, equivalent to 3.36 Bcf/d(95mn m?/d).

That would be less than half of the cost for the similarly sized Sabine Pass LNG project that came online in Louisiana earlier this year.

The figure was provided by Washington DC-based Venture Global yesterday to Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards as part of an effort to get a state tax abatement for the project. It was the first time a cost estimate was publicized for the project.

Venture Global plans to build two LNG export facilities in Louisiana using small 1mn t/yr modular liquefaction trains, which could be built off-site and transported to the terminal to reduce construction costs.

The Plaquemines project is slated to come on line in 2022 with baseload capacity of 10mn t/yr, equivalent to 1.4 Bcf/d (40mn m?/d) of gas. It could be expanded to baseload capacity of 20mn t/yr, with peak capacity of 24mn t/yr.

Houston-based Cheniere Energy has said it will spend \\$20bn to build five liquefaction trains at Sabine Pass with combined peak capacity of 25mn t/yr.

Plaquemines would create 250 new direct jobs with an average salary of \\$70,000/yr and create an additional 728 indirect jobs, the governor's office said. It also would create 2,200 construction jobs.

"We are happy to welcome Venture Global to Plaquemines parish for its second multibillion-dollar LNG project in our state," Edwards said. "The long-term prospects for the US natural gas industry are bright, and Louisiana is well-positioned to capitalize on that success with ready access to natural gas supplies and deepwater access for shipping LNG to destinations worldwide."

Venture Global has raised more than \\$280mn to help pay for engineering, marketing and permitting of its two projects. But it would need to sign long-term contracts for most of its capacity to get financing for construction. That has become difficult for US projects to accomplish after the steep fall in oil prices in mid-2014. The economics of US LNG exports are based on a wide differential between domestic gas prices and global oil prices, as most long-term Asian LNG contracts are linked to oil prices.

Shell in February signed a contract for up to 1mn t/yr of LNG from Venture Global's \\$4.5bn, 12.7mn t/yr Calcasieu Pass LNG project in southwestern Louisiana. It is the only customer deal that Venture Global has announced for either of its projects. Calcasieu could start exporting as early as 2019 and reach full production in 2020.