Cheniere LNG Crushing It with Global Exports
Cheniere moves LNG cargo
By Virginia Billeaud Anderson
G
ermany learned a hard lesson about “energy security.” While it was incautiously buying oil and gas from Russia, Putin began mowing down Ukrainians, which essentially turned Germany’s payments into a war chest. Then Putin made the sleazy request that “unfriendly” purchasers pay him in rubles. Germany called this “blackmail.” Scrambling to wean his country off Russian oil and gas and to diversify energy sources, Germany’s economic minister signed a deal to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar, and with the ink still wet, admitted it was a mistake to be so dependent on Russia for energy. Germany would begin phasing out Russian fossil fuel exports, the minister said, and constructing its first import terminals to receive LNG. Like Germany, other countries are reevaluating their energy independence and turning to LNG. With demand through the roof, the United States 14 | Mv | May + June 2022
ramped-up LNG production. In this, Houston-based Cheniere LNG leads the pack as the largest U.S. exporter of LNG. Headquartered downtown Houston, with LNG production facilities at Sabine Pass Louisiana and Corpus Christi Texas and offices in Washington D.C., London, Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo, Cheniere’s 2021 annual report claims it is the largest U.S. producer of LNG and the second largest LNG producer globally. In November 2021, Cheniere LNG’s CEO Jack Fusco looked overwhelmed as he told a CNBC interviewer that demand was “off the charts” and his company’s cargo deliveries to Europe had increased 200% year to date. Fusco predicted higher demand, but he couldn’t predict Putin’s geopolitical jack-assery or President Biden eliminating Cheniere’s permit hassles. Hell-bent on Germany and the rest of Europe pivoting away from Russian oil and gas, Biden
greenlighted the Department of Energy’s approval for Cheniere to export its maximum LNG capacity to Europe. Furthermore, Biden announced at the G7 wartime powwow in Brussels that the U.S. will “work with international partners” to boost LNG supply for the European market by at least 15 billion cubic meters in 2022, aiming for 50 billion cubic meters by 2030. The climate crowd moaned of course, yet Biden was signaling that LNG was an acceptable solution to energy independence. His DOE order stated, “U.S. LNG remains an important component to global energy security” and the department was committed to helping allies and trading partners with energy supplies. Germany, for all its green new deal zealotry, concurred. Multiple LNG suppliers and increased storage volumes were necessary to “govern energy supply on our own state territory and guarantee sovereignty.”
