U.S. liquefied natural gas company Venture Global LNG’s Plaquemines export plant under construction in Louisiana started to take in natural gas from pipelines on Wednesday, according to data from financial firm LSEG on Thursday.
The United States is already the biggest LNG exporter in the world. Plaquemines is expected to be the next U.S. LNG export plant to enter service later in 2024.
LSEG data showed Plaquemines took in about 0.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas on Wednesday.
One billion cubic feet is enough gas to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.
Analysts have said they expect Venture Global to complete work on the first 1.8-bcfd phase of Plaquemines between 2024-2026 and the second 1.2-bcfd phase between 2025-2026.
Officials at Plaquemines were not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Tomasz Janowski)