US LNG exporters’ FID problem

Tellurian chief warns that not all recent SPAs may be fulfilled due to challenges in getting projects financed

Existing and potential US LNG suppliers have signed as much as 50mn t/yr of SPAs with European, Asian and global portfolio players over the past seven months. But just one project, Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG, has reached FID in the same period. US firm Tellurian might be seen as one of those developers that has contracts in place—albeit signed across ten weeks of May-July 2021 last year rather than in the flurry of activity since Russia invaded Ukraine in February—but has not announced FID. The firm stands out, though, for having a project under construction, having greenlit US services heavyweight Bechtel to start work in late March. And, as CEO Octavio Simoes told Petroleum Economist