LNG News Editor:
Tellurian Inc., the developer of the Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana, has signed an agreement to sell its Haynesville gas production business in East Texas and Louisiana to Dallas, Texas-based Aethon Energy Management, a private investment firm.
Tellurian said Aethon had agreed to pay $260 million for the shale gas business and additionally signed an accord to purchase 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the Driftwood liquefaction plant.
“The assets will expand Aethon’s footprint in the Louisiana Haynesville and Bossier shale basins with approximately 31,000 net acres, including gathering and treating systems that have capacity for up to 100 million cubic feet per day that will bring Aethon’s pro forma gathering and treating capacity to over 3 Bcf per day across its assets,” said a statement.
Lazards role
Tellurian earlier in 2024 hired the investment bank Lazards to explore a sale of its Haynesville gas production business as part of efforts to raise new capital to continue the Driftwood project with full permits to produce 27.6 million tonnes per annum.
The Driftwood project as it currently stands involves constructing 20 mid-scale processing Trains, each with 1.38 MTPA of capacity and built as five blocks of Trains.
According to the regulatory permits and building schedules the Phase One development would include the first two of these blocks for 11 MTPA of output and two of three planned 235,000 cubic metres storage tanks and the first of three planned loading berths for LNG carriers.
Tellurian’s natural gas assets include 31,149 net acres, interests in 159 producing wells and over 400 drilling locations in the Haynesville Shale.
The Tellurian-Aethon Heads of Agreement contemplates the parties negotiating a 20-year offtake agreement which would be indexed to Henry Hub plus a liquefaction fee, with appropriate credit support, to provide the basis for project financing of Driftwood LNG.
