Energy Transfer will only make the final investment decision on the Lake Charles LNG project after it finds buyers for 80% of its equity, the company said in its third-quarter earnings call.
The Lake Charles LNG facility is a conversion of an import and regasification terminal into an export terminal. Earlier in the year, Energy Transfer said it aimed to make the final investment decision for the project by the end of 2025. Now, things look different.
“We are in advanced discussions with MidOcean Energy related to its participation as a 30% equity owner of Lake Charles LNG with a commensurate percentage of LNG offtake,” co-chief executive Thomas Long reported during the company’s earnings call. “We’re in discussions with other parties for the remaining equity we intend to sell in order to reduce Energy Transfer’s equity interest to 20%.”
Long proceeded to say that the equity sale was a matter of risk management for the company, and it would not go ahead with Lake Charles LNG unless it found equity buyers. “Our projects need to meet certain risk/return criteria, and we are not there yet on LNG,” Long said. The priority for Energy Transfer is capital discipline, both Long and co-chief executive Marshall McCrea noted during the call.
“We will not proceed with LNG until we have secured 80% of equity partners similar to ourselves. And we’ve got some work to do on that,” McCrea said. Both executives said there was substantial interest from potential partners in the project.
The Lake Charles LNG project is fully permitted, uses existing infrastructure, and benefits from an abundant natural gas supply through existing connections to the Henry Hub and connectivity to Energy Transfer’s vast network of natural gas pipelines. It will have an annual capacity of some 15 million tons of liquefied natural gas once completed.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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