US LNG producer Venture Global has agreed to sell 1mn tonnes of LNG over a 20-year contract to Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petronas, the US LNG giant announced on July 3.

The LNG will be shipped from its Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) project, which is currently under construction in Louisiana.

The deal marks CP2’s first new offtake agreement in two years. While the final investment decision process has commenced, a final decision on the massive 28mn tpy project is not expected until the end of the summer.

Site work began in June, and the project is expected to come online in 2027. LNG supply shipped to Petronas will be sourced from Phase One of CP2, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

With the sales agreement in place with Petronas, Venture Global has now sold 10.75mn tonnes per year (tpy) of the 14.4mn tpy nameplate capacity for Phase One.  

If both phases of the project are completed, Venture Global could catapult ahead of Cheniere Energy as the US’s largest exporter of the super-cooled gas, signaling a meteoric rise from its founding in 2013.

The Petronas deal breaks a two-year slump for Venture Global, which struggled to find buyers after angering a number of key industry players including Shell, BP, Repsol, Edison, and Orlen for failing to deliver contracted cargoes.

In April, Arlington, Virginia-headquartered Venture Global commenced commercial operations at its flagship Calcasieu Pass facility.

Previously, Venture Global sold LNG cargoes from the facility on the spot market rather than to foundation customers, stating it was still in the commissioning phase due to faulty equipment at the plant. The $5.9bn arbitration case has gone to the London Court of International Arbitration and the International Chamber of Commerce.

Venture Global and Patronas also inked a 20-year LNG supply deal in 2023 with the Malaysian state-run firm agreeing then to buy 1mn tpy from Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG export terminal in Louisiana.