Australia’s Woodside Energy is having trouble finding buyers for the liquefied natural gas it produces at its Louisiana LNG plant, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources. The reason is that Woodside is asking for higher liquefaction fees than other LNG exporters in the United States.
Citing its sources, Reuters reported that the Australian energy major was asking liquefaction fees of over $2.80 per million British thermal units, which compares to an average of between $2.40 and $2.50 for the U.S. market overall. Cheniere Energy, the largest U.S. exporter of liquefied natural gas, is asking liquefaction fees of $2.60, the report noted. Venture Global is at the other end of the range, with liquefaction fees of $2.30 per mmBtu.
As a result of this, Woodside Energy has so far managed to secure only one long-term buyer, and that is Germany’s Uniper. The agreed volumes stand at 2 million tons annually, equal to a quarter of the Louisiana LNG’s capacity allocated for sale. Woodside is keeping a separate 8 million tons annually to sell itself.
“Woodside is offering 10-year contracts, which are attractive in terms of duration, but the sticking point has been the price,” the Reuters source told the publication. “They wanted $2.80 per mmBtu but are now offering it at $2.60.”
Woodside Energy made the final investment decision on the Louisiana LNG project last year, with plans to launch production in 2029. The Australian company acquired the facility when it took over Tellurian for $1.2 billion in 2024.
The facility is designed to have three liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 16.5 million tons annually. This would boost Woodside’s total LNG capacity to 24 million tons annually by the next decade, the company said in 2025. Woodside also has permits to expand the Louisiana LNG facility by another two trains, which would boost its capacity to a total of 27.6 million tons annually.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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