May 24, 2019 – Natural Gas Intelligence
As Second-Wave U.S. LNG Projects Near FID, Customer Contracts More Difficult to Secure
By Leticia Gonzales
Additional infrastructure is critical to balancing the U.S. natural gas market as the country is already awash in supplies, with more on the way, but selling that story to investors is difficult, developers of second-wave liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects said at a recent conference in Houston.
Natural gas production is set to grow by 21 Bcf/d by 2024, with a lot of the gas moving to the Gulf Coast for export, according to RBN Energy. Meanwhile, feed gas demand from LNG facilities is expected to keep rising to an estimated 7 Bcf/d this year and 12 Bcf/d-plus by 2024 from around 3 Bcf/d in 2018.
“Without additional infrastructure, exports won’t work,” Tellurian Inc.’s Octavio Simoes, senior adviser to CEO Meg Gentle, said at RBN’s xPortCon in Houston…
Read the full article here: https://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/118474-as-second-wave-us-lng-projects-near-fid-customer-contracts-more-difficult-to-secure
… China is the largest buyer of LNG, but its trade dispute with the United States is seen complicating future LNG exports.
However, unlike greenfield projects on the drawing board, Cheniere hasn’t had a problem finding buyers. It has 18 foundation customers, only one of which is China.
In fact, the Houston-based developer has indicated it would likely move forward with a proposed expansion of its Corpus Christi export facility in South Texas even without China as a customer. An FID on the 9.5 mmty expansion is expected in the spring of 2020, Cheniere’s Corey Grindal, senior vice president of gas supply, said at xPortCon.
Grindal, who joined a panel discussion with Simoes and LNG Ltd. CEO Greg Vesey, said he considered the trade spat short term in nature, but there is “some switching going on in the world” as Chinese buyers are swapping or selling cargoes.
