Souki: Tellurian to focus on finding equity partners for Driftwood LNG

Tellurian will now focus on finding equity partners for its Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana after it withdrew a senior notes offering, according to the firm’s co-founder and executive chairman, Charif Souki.

Due to uncertain conditions in the high-yield market, Tellurian withdrew the offering that would allowed the firm to stay on schedule to deliver LNG from Driftwood in the first half of 2026.

Souki said in a video update posted on YouTube on Tuesday that circumstances in the yield market, with inflation and uncertainty, have created “havoc in the debt market”.

“The debt market have made it very difficult to do a debt deal today and we will never put in jeopardy the balance sheet of Tellurian to try to accelerate the process by taking disproportionate risks,” Souki said.

Following withdrawal of the offering, this puts the Driftwood LNG export project “in jeopardy to deliver gas on the schedule that we were hoping to stay to,” according to Souki.

“The money is most likely to come from a potential strategic partner”

Tellurian “will now focus to find partners for the equity of Driftwood, a process we have started six to nine months ago,” Souki said.

“The money is most likely to come from a potential strategic partner, because this is where the money is today,” he said.

He said investors have all indicated that they would like to “participate in an American LNG project because the US will be caught out to provide a disproportionate amount of the natural gas required for the rest of the world.”

Souki added that the company would continue with its plans, but staying on schedule would become “more difficult”.

The first phase of the Driftwood project is worth about $12.8 billion.

It includes two LNG plants near Lake Charles with an export capacity of up to 11 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

In March, Tellurian issued a limited notice to proceed to compatriot engineering and construction giant Bechtel under its executed EPC contract to begin construction of phase one of the Driftwood LNG plant.

According to the latest update, Tellurian and Bechtel are moving forward with the works which include site preparation, concrete pile driving, offloading of concrete pile shipments, mobilization of construction equipment and tools, etc.

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