Cheniere gears up for next wave of export projects

Bloomberg

Sixteen months after sending the first cargo of US shale gas overseas, Cheniere Energy Inc. is
already preparing to be at the forefront of the next wave of
export projects.
Cheniere is exploring new ways to finance additional terminals that chill gas to a liquid and ship it across the globe, including skipping the banks and going to other capital sources, Jack Fusco, chief executive officer, said during an interview at the company’s headquarters in Houston Monday.
The company has room to grow: It’s leased additional acres at
the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana and has the option to purchase more land at Cheniere’s Corpus Christi site in Texas, where another export project is under construction.
Cargoes of liquefied natural gas from the US to Australia are flooding the global market, adding to a supply glut and prompting investors to back new export facilities at the slowest pace since 1999. But a second round of projects is emerging on speculation that the slowdown will lead to a post-2020 construction boom that’ll benefit low-cost producers offering flexible contracts.
“Our goal is to leverage the existing infrastructure to build whatever the next round requires,” Fusco said. “We can do a better job financing and getting our financing costs down in the capital markets. We’re evaluating all those things to try to get ourselves much more competitive.”
Fusco said the company is open to building LNG plants smaller than the ones operating at Sabine Pass, which can each produce 4.5 million tons of the fuel per year. Cheniere’s potential move to scale down has to do with “speed to market and what the customer needs,” he said.