Energy Transfer said on Thursday it was suspending the development of its Lake Charles liquefied natural gas export facility in Louisiana, the first LNG project to be halted after U.S. President Donald Trump expedited permits for them in January.
The suspension comes as the company has been facing rising costs and amid fears of a looming global oversupply as new LNG output comes online.
The pipeline and storage company said it remains open to discussions with third parties that may have an interest in developing the LNG project. Energy Transfer executives became nervous about Lake Charles LNG in the final stretch of development because the company still sees itself as a pipeline operator rather than an LNG-focused company, said a person familiar with the project. Offtake agreements for Lake Charles LNG had been structured in a way to protect Energy Transfer from a potential glut in LNG supply, the person added.
Energy Transfer did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment. The company had previously said it would only give the facility the financial go-ahead if it sold 80% of the project to equity partners.
Lake Charles LNG was projected to have a liquefaction capacity of 16.45 million metric tons per annum (mtpa).
The suspension could impact customers including U.S. oil producer Chevron. Energy Transfer said in June it would supply Chevron with an additional 1 mtpa from Lake Charles, bringing the total contracted volumes to Chevron to 3 mtpa. The oil producer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suspension could impact customers including U.S. oil producer Chevron.
Legitimate question, what does this mean for the 5 year deal that was signed 3 days beforehand?
Hungary is the latest nation to sign a deal for more LNG from Louisiana
Hungary is taking a step toward diversifying its energy supply with a new five-year deal to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas, though Russia remains its dominant gas supplier, The Center Square writes.
State-owned MVM Group has signed an agreement with Chevron to purchase 400 million cubic meters of LNG annually, marking the first time American gas will enter Hungary’s energy mix. The fuel is expected to be sourced from Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles export facility in Louisiana, with deliveries routed through Croatia’s Krk LNG terminal.
The deal comes as Hungary faces mounting pressure from the European Union to reduce reliance on Russian energy, even as it continues to receive record volumes of Russian gas and challenges an EU mandate to ban Russian imports by 2027. Combined with existing contracts with Shell, Engie and Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, the Chevron agreement boosts Hungary’s non-Russian gas supply, underscoring the country’s effort to balance energy security, price concerns and geopolitical realities
Is it like it never happened and Hungary is off the hook for relying just as much on Russia as they were before they tried to make a deal? Or does it just mean that Chevron has to make up the difference from “somewhere else” that definitely isn’t Venezuela?
Its a good question. I know there is new NG capacity that came online recently from the Caspian region serving Europe via Azerbaijan and Georgia that completely bypasses Russia. I wonder if this is reducing the need for LNG enough for prices to fall.
Contracting has slowed down across all LNG facilities, and contract rates on sale and purchase agreements are much lower than previous rates, squeezing margins for LNG developers, analysts said.
I hadn’t heard about the decline of contract rates on LNG, and honestly its surprising to me. A huge increase in LNG was created when Russian gas was essentially removed from the market via sanctions. The contract rates from this Western company suggests that not only has the existing LNG export infrastructure replaced all the gas previously entering from the Russian market, but that there was enough excess that prices are falling. This is even after the majority of Europe has already transitioned away from Russian sources.