US energy firm ConocoPhillips is looking to sign more LNG offtake deals and to secure additional regasification capacities, as it continues to expand its LNG portfolio, according to its management.
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance and Andy O’Brien, senior vice president, strategy, commercial, sustainability, and technology, discussed the company’s LNG business during the first-quarter earnings call on May 2.
O’Brien noted during the call that ConocoPhillips increased its stake in the Australia Pacific LNG export project back in 2022, and it purchased stakes in both QatarEnergy’s giant North Field East (NFE) project and the North Field South (NFS) project.
On the Gulf Coast, ConocoPhillips secured 5 mtpa of offtake from the first phase of Sempra Infrastructure’s Port Arthur LNG project in Texas, and it also took a 30 percent equity interest in the project.
Last year, ConocoPhillips also signed a deal with Mexico Pacific, the developer of the planned Saguaro Energia LNG export project, to buy 2.2 mtpa of LNG from the latter but this deal is pending FID.
It also has 0.2 mtpa of offtake for five years starting in 2025 from Sempra Infrastructure’s ECA Phase 1 in Mexico.
“So all in, our offtake in North America is about 7.4 mtpa pending the FID at Saguaro,” O’Brien said.
“Then switching to the regas side of things, we now have 4.5 mtpa secured in Europe,” he said.
He said ConocoPhillips booked 2.8 mtpa of capacity at the planned onshore LNG import terminal in Brunsbüttel, Germany.
“Now up to 2 mtpa of that will support our LNG SPAs with Qatar, and we also have 1.7 mtpa of regas capacity at the Gate terminal in the Netherlands,” he said.
“So over the near term, our focus is on continuing to ladder in the regas opportunities. And over the longer term, maybe think about 10 to 15 mtpa has a good range of offtake capacity to think about. This will allow us to achieve the full benefits of scale across our organization,” O’Brien said.
“I do want to be clear, this is an offtake ambition. We don’t feel that we have to take on additional liquefaction capital. So for competitive reasons, we don’t get into the specifics of where we’re actually developing offtake and regas right now. But needless to say, that’s something that’s front of mind for us,” he said.
Port Arthur stake sale
Lance also said during the call that ConocoPhilips may consider selling its stake in the Porth Arthur LNG project.
“With regard to Port Arthur, look, we’ve had some inbounds on the equity interest that we have, and we’re taking a look at that,” he said.
“Trying to understand as what’s right for the company going forward. As Andy mentioned in the last question, look, we don’t necessarily need to be an equity owner in these things,” Lance said.
“We wanted to at Port Arthur to launch the project in Phase 1. So we did that. But we’re not married to it, if the right opportunity comes along. So we continue to look at those opportunities. We’re in the market every day. And we’re trading in the market, and we’re looking in the market and doing things that we think make the company better,” he said.
Third Qatari LNG expansion
Besides the NFE and NFS projects which will boost Qatar’s capacity to 126 mtpa, QatarEnergy also earlier this year announced the third North Field expansion phase, North Filed West, to boost Qatar’s capacity to 142 mtpa.
During the call, Lance also answered a question whether ConocoPhillips would be interested to join this project as well.
He said if the terms are “acceptable and competitive, we’re certainly interested in expanding that relationship with Qatar down the road.”
“We’ll have to see when they make their decision on what they want to do with any future expansions out of the North Field,” Lance said.