Galp receives first gas shipment from US company

Galp announced to the market on Wednesday that it has received the first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Venture Global LNG, the US company with which it signed a 20-year contract.

“This first shipment marks the beginning of the take-or-pay rights and obligations established in the 20-year SPA, signed on 2 May 2018, with Venture Global LNG, for 1 mtpa, from the Calcasieu Pass LNG export unit, in Louisiana, USA”, reads the statement.

In the midst of a trade war, with the United States demanding that Europe buy more North American gas to balance trade between the two blocs, the agreement to supply one million tonnes of natural gas a year had not been fulfilled, as Público newspaper reported.

At the conference with analysts in the context of the presentation of the 2024 financial results, Galp’s co-chairwoman, Maria João Carioca, said that the oil company was once again not counting on volumes from the Calcasieu Pass terminal this year. “If these volumes arrive, they will be a potential benefit”, she said.

Galp joined the formal complaints filed by BP and Shell against Venture Global LNG in 2022 — year of an energy crisis — accusing the US company of failing to honour multi-billion dollar supply contracts signed between the parties in order to profit from selling the gas to buyers willing to pay on the spot market.

“The successful delivery of this first cargo strengthens Galp’s position in the natural gas and LNG sector, diversifying and adding flexibility to its portfolio”, Galp wrote in a statement to the market.

Venture Global’s LNG plant, located on the Gulf Coast in the US state of Louisiana, began producing LNG in January 2022 and exported its first cargo two months later. But the company argued that it had not yet reached the capacity to respond to commercial operations.