FERC breakthrough on LNG certification

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Feb. 21 that it “has reached an agreement that may provide a path forward” for consideration of the remaining 12 pending liquified natural gas terminals before it.

FERC said this happened in the context of its Feb. 21 approval of Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, in which the commission applied a new approach for consideration of direct greenhouse gas emissions from LNG facilities.

One concurring and one dissenting opinion on the Feb. 21 approval focused on the GHG impact of LNG facilities.

“Since I joined the Commission, it’s been a priority of mine to expedite and improve our LNG terminal application review process,” FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee said. “I’m extremely pleased that we are issuing the certificate order for the Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal today.” He said the facility will be able to export 12 million metric tons of LNG a year.

Chatterjee said he appreciates the efforts of his colleagues in working together to reach agreement on the Calcasieu Pass facility.

“This is significant, as I anticipate we’ll be able to use the framework developed in this order to evaluate the other LNG certificates that the Commission is considering.”

Bloomberg said the Calcasieu Pass approval was the first authorization in two years for a new LNG export terminal and said this broke “an impasse that had threatened to bring approvals to a standstill.”

Of five seats on the commission, four are currently occupied. There was one dissenting opinion in this decision, and one concurring opinion.

Chatterjee also said FERC signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, “cut through unnecessary red tape and reduced inter-agency friction by signing the One Federal Decision MOU with our federal partners, and increased the number of engineers working on our reviews by casting a wide net to capture talent everywhere we could find it.”

He called the Calcasieu Pass certification “a matter of truly strategic significance,” thanking FERC staff for hard work and fellow commissioners for working on the agreement. “Commissioner McNamee showed just how he got his reputation as being a ‘lawyer’s lawyer’ through his attention to the law and work to find common ground. And Commissioner LaFleur was supportive of this project and constructive in working to reach our agreement,” Chatterjee said.

- KRISTEN NELSON