Venture Global LNG seeks to raise emissions limits

Jun 15, 2023

The Venture Global LNG Calcasieu Pass terminal. Venture Global is asking the state to greenlight increases of its annual emissions and flaring limits at the LNG facility, according to records filed with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.(Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

Amid "reliability challenges" at the facility, Venture Global LNG is asking the state to greenlight increases of its annual emissions and flaring limits at its Calcasieu Pass liquefied natural gas plant in Cameron Parish, according to records filed with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

In an air permit renewal application submitted in March, Venture Global requested a jump in its annual flaring limit at Calcasieu Pass from 60 hours to 500 hours — a 733% spike. Flaring is a common but controversial practice used to eradicate excess industrial gases and is typically reserved for emergencies.

The company also wants to raise the plant's greenhouse gas emissions limit from about 3.97 million tons per year to roughly 4.65 million tons. Most of the additional emissions would be attributed to duct burners at the facility, according to Venture Global's permit renewal application.

Venture Global is also seeking incremental increases for its annual release caps of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, all of which are pollutants.

Meanwhile, Venture Global reported several 2022 incidents to DEQ over equipment issues with turbines and hot oil heaters that led to minor accidental releases of those compounds. The company's 2022 air monitoring reports said the plant fixed the problems after fully implementing its "energy management system" in November amid its ongoing commissioning phase.

Those issues mirror "reliability challenges" with heat recovery steam generators that Venture Global reported in a March 28 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In that letter, company officials said full commercial operations for Calcasieu Pass would be delayed, even though the plant shipped 128 LNG cargoes over the past year. That admission rankled at least one of its long-term contract customers, Repsol, which unsuccessfully sought a FERC intervention to begin receiving its LNG.

The proposed emissions increases are "pretty small" in comparison to Louisiana's annual output of those pollutants, said Brian Snyder, an associate professor at LSU's Department of Environmental Sciences

For example, in 2022 Louisiana plants released about 169,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, Snyder said. The state's industrial sector also put out 51,000 tons of particulate matter, 179,000 tons of carbon monoxide and 177,000 tons of volatile organic compounds. Should they be approved, the highest limit for those compounds at Calcasieu Pass would be 936 tons of carbon monoxide annually.

The 4.65-million-ton greenhouse gas limit would make Calcasieu Pass the state's fifth-largest carbon dioxide emitter, assuming no other industrial facilities’ emissions totals rose since 2019, according to the latest data available from LSU's greenhouse gas inventory. Louisiana's largest emitter is CF Industries’ Donaldsonville ammonia plant at roughly 10 million tons annually.

The increased flaring, however, might draw more scrutiny, Snyder said. Depending on the process used, flaring can still emit harmful compounds.

"But, it is also in a pretty remote location, so I think its health impacts might be pretty limited," Snyder wrote in an email.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade — an environmental watchdog group that released Venture Global's air monitoring reports this week — blasted the company for the permit changes amid the operational issues at Calcasieu Pass.

"It would be as if I got pulled over by a cop for doing 80 in a 60 zone and rather than give me a ticket the cop agrees to just raise the speed limit to 80," Bucket Brigade Executive Director Anne Rolfes said in a statement.

In response, Venture Global officials said Calcasieu Pass has been in full compliance with its emissions limits, "including with respect to flaring."

Venture Global determined there were "intermittent exceedances of certain maximum hourly limits" at Calcasieu Pass, but none of those incidents were associated with flaring, Venture Global spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a statement. None of those exceedances surpassed the facility's annual emissions limits, Hynes said.

"While deviations are not unusual for a plant under commissioning, we have since made process improvements to minimize errors moving forward," she said. "This is reflected in the most recent semi-annual report for the second half of 2022 that has been submitted to LDEQ."

State regulators have yet to approve Venture Global's latest air permit application. The company filed its request about six months before the existing permit expires in September.

DEQ spokesman Greg Langley said the agency has reviewed Venture Global's air monitoring reports for 2022. He said the company reported "some permit deviations" that are under review.

"Any deviations that are identified as violations will be addressed appropriately," Langley wrote in an email, noting that not every deviation is considered a permit violation.

Email Robert Stewart at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @ByRobertStewart.