LNG

Australia’s left-wing government has rowed back from starting to ban hydrocarbons and putting the nation on a path to economic and energy suicide by on July 23 deciding to issue exploration and production licences for natural gas for the East, Southeast and West coast markets.

Woodside Energy, the Australian liquefied natural gas plant operator, has agreed to buy Tellurian’s US Driftwood LNG export project on the Louisiana Gulf Coast in a deal valued at US$1.2 billion and giving the Perth-based company a major foothold in the US market.

Woodside, which is the operator and a shareholder in the North West Shelf facility and holds most of Pluto LNG in Western Australia, has now secured a fully permitted venture with a potential 27.6 million tonnes per annum of output and “significant cash generation potential” to underpin long-term shareholder returns.

The transaction comprises an all-cash payment of about US$900 million, or $1.00 per share of outstanding Tellurian common stock.

“The implied enterprise value is approximately $1.2Bln and represents an attractive entry into an opportunity with more than $1 billion of expenditure incurred to date,” said Woodside’s statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Woodside boost

“The acquisition of Tellurian and its Driftwood LNG development opportunity positions Woodside to be a global LNG powerhouse,” said Woodside Chief Executive Meg O’Neill.

“It adds a scalable US LNG development opportunity to our existing approximately 10 MTPA of equity LNG in Australia,” explained O’Neill.

“Having a complementary US position would allow us to better serve customers globally and capture further marketing optimisation opportunities across both the Atlantic and Pacific Basins,” the CEO stated.

“Woodside expects to leverage its global LNG expertise to unlock this fully permitted development and expand our relationship with Bechtel which is the EPC contractor for both Driftwood LNG and our Pluto Train 2 (expansion) project in Australia,” O’Neill noted.

Tellurian stated that the deal with Woodside provided “substantial and certain value for our shareholders” after a strategic repositioning in December 2023.

“Woodside’s offer reflects this progress, providing a significant premium to our share price,” said Martin Houston, Executive Chairman of Tellurian.

Martin Houston had established the Tellurian company with Charif Souki, who had previously founded and departed Cheniere Energy.

“After careful consideration of Tellurian’s opportunities and challenges, the board and senior management weighed an immediate and significant cash return against the risks and costs associated with the timeline to FID and determined that this offer is in our shareholders’ best interests,” Houston stated.

Ideal match

Houston said that Woodside was a “highly credible operator” with better access to financial resources and a greater ability to manage offtake risk. 

The Driftwood LNG plant is under construction in Lake Charles and according to current plans will have five LNG liquefaction Trains built through four phases.

Construction has commenced, with pilings for Trains 1 and 2 complete, foundation work in progress and pilings underway for the LNG storage tanks.

“The progress on ground work reduces the risk to EPC timeline and cost,” said Woodside.

Woodside added that it was targeting FID readiness for Phase 1 of the Driftwood development from the first quarter of 2025.

Tellurian said that the acquisition price being paid by Woodside represented a 75 percent premium to Tellurian’s closing price on July 19, 2024, and a 48 percent premium to Tellurian’s 30-day volume weighted average price.

Lazard, the international investment bank with main offices in Paris, New York and London, was given the task in 2023 of finding a buyer for Tellurian.

Lazard is continuing to serve as financial advisor to Tellurian and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is serving as legal counsel to Tellurian.

Woodside Energy, the operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, has signed a sale and purchase agreement with CPC Corp. of Taiwan for the long-term supply of cargoes.

Santos Ltd, the Australian operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants and a main shareholder in Papua New Guinea LNG assets, has seen its shares surge on take-over speculation, separately involving the Saudi Arabian Oil Company and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

June 21 (LNGJ) - Woodside Energy, the Australian LNG operator, has revised its leadership structure to deliver the next phase of strategy after the merger with BHP’s petroleum business. The new structure takes effect from August with key appointees having Executive Vice President and other titles and split Australian and International Chief Operating Officer roles.

   The new team under Chief Executive Meg O’Neil includes Chief Financial Officer Graham Tiver; COO Australia Liz Westcott; COO International Daniel Kalms and Chief Commercial Officer Mark Abbotsford. Other posts include Technical and Energy Development Julie Fallon; Strategy Andy Drummond; and External Affairs Tony Cudmore. CEO O’Neil thanked departing members Shiva McMahon and Matthew Ridolfi.

Woodside Energy, the leading Western Australian liquefied natural gas plant operator with North West Shelf and Pluto LNG, has boosted the economic prospects of the West African nation of Senegal by achieving first oil from the Sangomar field, Senegal’s first offshore oil project. 

May 14 (LNGJ) - TechnipFMC has been awarded a significant integrated engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract by Woodside Energy to support ongoing offshore gas field production for the Pluto LNG export plant in Western Australia. The award follows TechnipFMC’s integrated front-end engineering and design study for the project.

   The company said it would design, manufacture and install the subsea production system, flexible pipe and umbilicals for the Xena gas field infill well tied back to existing subsea infrastructure previously supplied by TechnipFMC. “We are proud to be delivering a fully integrated project from concept to execution,” said Jonathan Landes, President of Subsea at TechnipFMC.

Woodside Energy, the key supplier of LNG to North Asia from two operated plants in Western Australia, has shrugged off the rejection at its annual meeting in Perth of a non-binding vote on its climate change policies as several politically-motivated pension funds and advocacy groups voted against it as not going far enough.

Western Australian LNG operator Woodside Energy reported quarterly revenues down by nearly a third from lower oil and natural gas prices as projects progressed in LNG in Australia and in oil offshore Senegal in West Africa.

Woodside Energy, the operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants in Western Australia and the Scarborough Gas Project for LNG expansion, is seeking support from shareholders on its climate policies and urging them to attend the April 24 annual general meeting online or in person.