U.S. regulators gave Venture Global permission on Friday to proceed with some construction activities at its proposed CP2 LNG facility in Louisiana, according to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission document.
Venture Global is proposing to build a 20 million metric tons per annum plant at Calcasieu Pass. FERC approved the plant’s entire construction last week.
If constructed, CP2 would be the largest LNG plant in the U.S., helping the country remain the leading exporter of the superchilled gas and making Venture Global the country’s largest LNG exporter.
The plant has been at the center of a fight between the energy sector and environmentalists seeking to limit future LNG projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Venture Global has not yet given the project the final financial go-ahead, but its CEO Mike Sabel said in an earnings call this month that the company had already spent $5 billion on the project and raised another $3 billion to continue work.
(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Nia Williams)