Tellurian Trims Q3 Loss
US LNG developer Tellurian, still struggling to finalise commercial arrangements for the first phase of its planned 27.6mn mt/yr Driftwood LNG terminal in Louisiana, trimmed its Q3 net loss this year to $29.4mn from $39.6mn in Q3 2019, it said November 6.
To date, only French Total has agreed to purchase LNG from Driftwood: 1mn mt/yr as part of its $500mn equity invest in the project in July 2019 plus 1.5mn mt/yr from Tellurian’s own offtake over 15 years. In September 2019, Tellurian and Petronet LNG inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for up to 5mn mt/yr through an equity investment in Driftwood, but as yet, that deal has not advanced past the MOU stage.
Natural gas production from Tellurian’s 10,067 net acres of Haynesville/Bossier shale gas assets straddling the Texas/Louisiana border was steady at an exit rate of 47mn ft3/day. Gas sales increased to $7.3mn from $6.3mn.
Although Tellurian raised $32.8mn from common share issuances in Q3, it appears no closer to making a final investment decision (FID) on the first two trains at its five-train Driftwood project, although it expressed confidence, in a corporate presentation also posted November 6, in a recovering global LNG market.
Global LNG trade appears close to reaching year-ago levels, while LNG imports by China and India were up 10% and 15%, respectively, year-on-year through October. And natural gas prices appear to be trending higher, not only in Asia but also in Europe and the US.
With liquefaction capacity additions worldwide trending lower until at least 2022, Tellurian now sees a capacity gap of between 130mn mt/yr and 175mn mt/yr opening by 2025.