Cheniere at Capacity as Asia Seeks More U.S. LNG, CEO Says
Cheniere is running at full capacity as Asian buyers seek more U.S. LNG amid global supply disruptions, with limited room to increase output.
(Reuters) — U.S. LNG exporter Cheniere Energy's Asian customers are asking for more liquefied natural gas amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East that has cut supplies from Qatar, CEO Jack Fusco told the CERAWeek conference in Houston on March 25, adding that his company is already running at full capacity.
Fusco said he is hopeful Cheniere can start commercial operations at its Train 5 expansion at Corpus Christi, Louisiana, by March 27 to get more cargoes to Asia.
QatarEnergy was producing 20% of the world's LNG, but its plants have been shut as a result of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and sustained damage from airstrikes. The company said it could lose 17% of its present supply for up to five years.
Fusco said the last set of cargoes from QatarEnergy has arrived in Asia and there was no clear sense of when Qatar, the world's second-largest LNG exporter, would resume operations. Customers, meanwhile, are seeking more supplies from the U.S.
"We are trying to do whatever we can do. We're looking at our maintenance schedules really hard, but at the end of the day, we have to be safe and we have to be reliable. We don't want to sacrifice anything to get that last drop out," Fusco said.
Europe remains the market of choice for Cheniere, Fusco said, with 1,600 cargoes landed on the continent since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but he expects LNG growth will come from Asia.
Shocks to the LNG market are harmful to demand growth because higher prices take some countries out of the market, Fusco said, adding the latest conflict emphasized the need for diversity of supply.
Cheniere is the largest U.S. LNG exporter. Last year the company exported 46 million metric tons of the superchilled gas and expects to export 52 million tons in 2026.
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