LNG

Freeport LNG Development, majority-owned by founder and CEO Michael Smith, has ramped down operations in the wake of Winter Storm Uri and is considering rescheduling cargoes to long-term buyers to accommodate a spike in US gas demand since the onset of this week’s massive winter storm.

GAIL India and Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) have signed a 10-year time charter for the LNG carrier GAIL Bhuwan in a move expected to expand India’s LNG shipping capacity, improve import logistics and support the country’s growing gas demand.

Shell is weighing options to raise capital for the second phase of its flagship LNG Canada project, including a potential sale of part of its equity stake in the C$40 billion export terminal. People familiar with the talks noted any sell-down is likely to be structured as a project‑level transaction that combines equity and non‑recourse project finance, rather than a full exit from the project.

Japan’s leading utility JERA has shipped the first LNG cargo from Australia’s Barossa gas project, with processed loaded from the revamped Darwin LNG export plant in the Northern Territory. JERA holds a 12.5 percent stake in the project and is eligible to offtake approximately 425,000 tonnes of LNG annually, in line with its equity share.

Canada is courting India as a priority market for LNG exports as Ottawa seeks to reduce the country's heavy reliance on the United States. Tim Hodgson, Canada's Energy and Natural Resources Minister, framed the country's dependence on the US market a “strategic misstep”, since 98% of Canadian energy exports still flow south of the border.

Natural gas freeze-offs in the US reached a single-day high of 17 billion cubic feet (bcf) earlier this week as an intense Arctic weather system sweeps across the US. For winter 2025/26, cumulative freeze-offs now reached 58.3 bcf and the bullish gas price effect adds to large LNG deliverability issues in the first quarter of 2026, Wood Mackenzie warns.

ADNOC’s finance arm, XRG will raise its stake in Rio Grande LNG project by buying another 7.6% stake in Trains 4 and 5 from the BlackRock affiliate Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). The acquisition adds to XRG’s existing 11.7% interest in the project's first three Trains.

Tanzania is working towards signing a $42 billion LNG project agreement before June, with first production envisaged in eight years, Planning and Investment Minister Aida Mkumbo said during a London briefing. The project targets 47 Tcf of offshore reserves in Blocks 1, 2, and 4 off Lindi in southern Tanzania, with a view to developing a 10 mtpa LNG export terminal.

Across Southeast Asia, burning coal for power generation is rising faster than anywhere in the world – except for Bangladesh which is on course to overtake Pakistan as an LNG importer by 2035. The pivot to coal threatens to undermine Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) in Indonesia and Vietnam, not least because clean energy finance is hard to come by.

As of January 25, the ‘monster winter storm’ Fern has severely impacted feedgas supply for US LNG exports, with restrictions on the Creole Trail pipeline reducing flows to Sabine Pass terminal. Freeport LNG might also go offline as ice is accumulating along its feedgas corridor.