By Rita Shirley LeBleu

Caturus announced an expansion that will double the Cameron Parish Commonwealth LNG export facility capacity to approximately 17.25 Mtpa

Commonwealth LNG is located on the west bank of the Calcasieu Ship Channel and directly across the waterway from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility.

The expansion project announcement comes four months after Caturus reached Final Investment Decision (FID). Since that time, the project has continued advancing site preparation and engineering activities, according to Bobby Zafarnia, company spokesperson.

The expansion project is targeted to enter service in the early 2030s, following planned base project operations.

This is not the first company to announce an expansion in Cameron Parish before the initial project has been completed.

“Large energy structures are planned over many years, so evaluating future opportunities during an initial phase is common industry practice,” explained Zafarnia.

Caturus is the only independent U.S. company with an integrated wellhead-to-water position with gas produced and gathered from its own South Texas acreage, moved on contracted takeaway, liquefied at a terminal it controls and sold directly to global buyers.

“In simple terms, Caturus is involved from producing natural gas to delivering it, Zafarnia said. For Cameron Parish, that means Commonwealth is backed by a larger business that can support the project’s long-term growth while creating jobs and investment.”

Caturus is a privately held company backed by Kimmeridge and supported by strategic investments from Mubadala Energy and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), bringing together leading institutional partners across its integrated natural gas and LNG platform.

The company began filing with FERC in 2017. In 2022, then owner Paul Varello told the Cameron Parish police jurors and the public that Commonwealth would not be seeking a tax exemption.

The project has had a stops and starts, a change in ownership since 2022, the Biden administration pause on LNG projects, a Louisiana District Court ruling that a permit did not adequately consider cumulative pollution and the disproportionate impact pollution would have on low income and minority groups. Then in 2025, the permit was reissued to align with the Trump administration energy dominance agenda.