Tellurian Inc., the developer of a Gulf Coast plant in Louisiana with an associated pipeline and offering partners cargoes at $3.50 per million British thermal units, said the Asian market was rebounding as its own third-quarter losses narrowed.
Tellurian’s third-quarter net loss narrowed to $29.46 million from $39.60M in the same three months of 2019.
However, nine-month losses widened to $119.04M compared with $114.22M in the same period last year.
Tellurian said the value of its assets had dropped to $293 million at the end of September 2020 from $382.32M at the end of 2019.
Tellurian is developing a portfolio of natural gas production, LNG trading, and infrastructure that includes the Driftwood LNG export plant near Lake Charles with around 27 million tonnes per annum of output.
The company, listed on the Nasdaq global exchange, was upbeat about the recovery of the LNG global market.
“China and India LNG imports up 10 percent and 15 percent respectively through October year-on-year and the Japan-Korea-Marker prices proves the market rebound, with LNG imports back above 2019 levels in September-October,” said Tellurian in its November presentation to accompany the earnings statement .
The Houston, Texas-based company currently has Haynesville shale gas assets of 1.2 trillion cubic feet of resources and 46 million cubic feet per day of output.
Tellurian explained in the briefing that it holds 10,067 net acres in the Haynesville Shale.
Tellurian is planning a Driftwood gas pipeline project from the community of Gillis in northern Calcasieu Parish in Louisiana to the liquefaction plant on the coast.
There the company’s joint venture partners would be able to load free-on-board (FOB) LNG cargoes at an average price of $3.50 per MMBtu.
“Driftwood LNG is shovel ready, all permits secured and engineering is 30 percent complete, while $150M has been invested in the engineering, procurement and construction first phase,” the company explained. The EPC work will be carried out by leading global LNG plant builder Bechtel Inc..
Tellurian said its total third-quarter revenues from natural gas sales and LNG trading increased to $14.26M from $9.34M in the same three months of 2019.
Nine-month sales to the end of September amounted to $28.81M versus $19.63M in the prior-year period.
Tellurian said its natural gas production for the third quarter was around 4.1 billion cubic feet equivalent and remained flat, with an exit rate of 47 million cubic feet equivalent per day.
“Natural gas markets and prices have recovered worldwide,” said President and Chief Executive Meg Gentle in her earnings statement.
“Investment in new drilling and infrastructure is acutely needed to balance the market in 2021 and beyond,” she explained.
“Building liquefaction terminals as fully integrated partnerships is the only way partners will secure the lowest cost of gas and be protected from the market’s inherent volatility,” Gentle stated.
Tellurian ended its third quarter with around $77.9M in cash and cash equivalents and about $80.8M in current borrowings.
