Federal regulators sign off Venture Global's repairs at Louisiana plant

HOUSTON, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. federal regulators said on Tuesday that they are satisfied Venture Global LNG is trying to correct faults at its heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) at its Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana and expects the work to be completed in the timeline promised by the exporter.

Venture Global is the U.S.' fourth largest LNG exporter and has been at the center of a dispute with several of the world's largest energy companies including Shell PLC , BP PLC

, Repsol S.A. , Galp Energia , Edison SpA

and Orlen SA , for failing to deliver their cargoes, two years after it first started producing liquefied natural gas $(LNG)$.

The majors have taken Venture Global to arbitration and have even asked FERC to deny the LNG exporter's request to extend the commissioning period to 2025 or alternatively allow the majors access to confidential information on the commissioning so they can judge if Venture Global has been prolonging the process for its own financial gain.

The company has said the HRSGs at Calcasieu were part of the problem that has delayed commercial operation of the plant.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff found that Venture Global's team was approaching the diagnosis and remediation of the equipment performance in a careful, technically sound manner, they said in their latest report.

Venture Global is working with the equipment vendor and other industry experts to find a permanent solution to resolve the equipment performance, said the site inspection report.

FERC did not say in its report what was the timeline given to it by Venture Global for the problems to be fixed.

Venture Global did not immediately comment on the report.

The Louisiana-based LNG exporter has insisted that the plant's power system was unreliable and it is not prolonging the commissioning process but rather acting responsibly to get the plant completed.

It has insisted it cannot deliver long-term contracted cargoes unless the plant is complete.

FERC is yet to rule on the application of the majors to deny the extension request or make the confidential documents available to them.

(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Ros Russell)

((Curtis.Williams@thomsonreuters.com; +1 346 324 7560;))