Specialist
Former LNG Corporate Manager at Cheniere Energy Inc
Agenda
- Cheniere Energy's (AMEX: LNG) LNG short- and long-term market outlook – key assets, capacity, labour force and facility maintenance
- Cheniere's Sabine Pass Train 6 development
- Environmental and regulatory risks, plus the DoT’s (Department of Transportation’s) role
- LNG feedgas cost increases and potential margin impact
- Global gas market dynamics and winter demand scenarios
Questions
1.
What are Cheniere’s key assets and where has the company been investing its capital?
2.
How does an LNG facility run above capacity or output of 4.5 million tonnes per annum? How does it happen and how long can it be sustained?
3.
Sabine Pass has only had a few years of operating history, but have the processes been optimised or does some de-bottlenecking still need to happen? Have the mitigation designs you referred to been tested?
4.
How would you think Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi compare to LNG facilities run by major oil companies such as Shell, or the more established players in the LNG industry?
5.
What labour force is required to maintain and run Cheniere? How much is outsourced? Are there any potential issues with labour shortages and keeping these operations running?
6.
You used the term infancy for these facilities, but how far in advance is maintenance planned for facilities? When does equipment need to be replaced and what will get swapped out in the coming years?
7.
Do you anticipate any potential shortages on critical pieces of equipment?
8.
How quickly can Cheniere load LNG vessels at Corpus Christi and Sabine Pass? You talked about another berth, but can anything be done to improve the loading process?
9.
You said Train 6 will be completed soon but what do you monitor in the start-up of an LNG train? Does it get easier or harder as the subsequent trains start to process gas? Does it vary as trains get added in each of these locations?
10.
What are some environmental and regulatory risks? How does the DoT [Department of Transportation] oversee these operations? Are regulations getting more onerous? How is this managed?
11.
What was your reaction to the Cheniere capital allocation plan announced one month ago, September 2021, where it declared a USD 0.33-per-share dividend?
12.
Cheniere delivered both Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi ahead of schedule and within budget. How do you think the industry will fare on those metrics as LNG capacity gets added around the world and not just in the US?
13.
Global gas has been in the news a lot lately – Europe, Asia and plants being built here in the US – but how long do you think these prices could last? Is it sustainable or will LNG just be a growth business for the years to come?
14.
What key questions should we ask asset owners when assessing the operations of LNG capacity running today? What issues do we need to track in the coming months and years?
