DOE declines to intervene in Venture Global LNG dispute

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy denied a request Tuesday by Repsol to intervene in its dispute with Venture Global LNG over delays in delivery of natural gas shipments from the Calcasieu Pass terminal in Louisiana.

Spain-based Repsol, along with oil giants BP and Shell, have been calling on U.S. and European authorities to force Virginia-based Venture Global to deliver LNG, claiming it has held back contracted shipments in order to sell that LNG on the spot market at vastly inflated prices.

Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary of fossil and carbon management at the DOE, wrote in a Tuesday order that the delay in LNG shipments was “a matter for the commercial parties to resolve.”

“DOE has no role in commercial disputes — even ones involving exports of LNG — and DOE proceedings cannot be utilized as a means of applying commercial pressure,” he wrote.

Repsol, which asked the Energy Department to intervene in April, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Venture Global has been locked for close to a year in a dispute with its customers over delays in completing its Calcasieu Pass terminal, which it attributes to problems with power generation equipment that will delay “commercial operation” until the end of 2024.

The company in the meantime has been selling the LNG it is already producing, generating an estimated $18 billion in revenue across more than 200 shipments.

“There should be no tolerance for U.S. suppliers like Venture Global engaging in opportunistic conduct that reneges on longterm commitments to foundation buyers, years after having reaped the immediate benefits of having those commitments in hand,” Steve Hill, executive vice president at Shell Energy, wrote in a letter to the U.S. EU Energy Security Task Force last month.

Following the decision Tuesday, Venture Global spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes called Repsol’s request, “inappropriate and unprecedented.”

“The U.S. regulatory body is not meant to be used to exert pressure on commercial parties under binding contracts,” she said.