Venture Global Inc. revealed plans March 6 for a 24-train brownfield expansion at its Plaquemines LNG facility south of New Orleans that will up its LNG capacity by 18 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

The expansion project would make Plaquemines the largest LNG export facility in North America and represents an $18 billion additional investment in Louisiana, bringing the company’s total spend for U.S. projects to $75 billion.

The announcement of the project expansion comes after Venture Global raised the estimated cost to finish building Plaquemines by $2 billion. Venture Global’s stock on the New York Stock Exchange fell by approximately 37% as of 2:50 p.m. CST to $8.96 per share.

Plaquemines currently has 36 liquefaction trains with a total production capacity of 27 mtpa. The expansion would bring Plaquemines’ production capacity to 45 mtpa. 

“We believe this flexible incremental capacity will position us to respond rapidly to market growth signals. In a capital-intensive commodity industry, capital will always flow to the most competitive projects, and we believe that an expansion of Plaquemines is one of the most economically efficient opportunities available to quickly meet growing LNG demand,” said Venture Global CEO Mike Sabel. 

Plaquemines achieved first LNG on Dec. 13, 2024, and exported its first cargo later that month.

“We continue to improve and optimize production, most recently at Plaquemines, where every liquefaction train we have activated thus far has consistently demonstrated pro rata production levels of approximately 140% of nameplate capacity,” Sabel said in the company’s full-year 2024 earnings report.

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