Equinor agrees to 15-year FOB deal to buy LNG supply from US exporter Cheniere

Norway's Equinor has agreed to a long-term FOB deal to buy 1.75 million mt/year of LNG supply from Cheniere Energy, the US exporter said June 9.

The volumes will be sold by Cheniere's marketing unit for a term of around 15 years, with deliveries under the sale and purchase agreement starting in the second half of 2026.

Half of the volume, or around 900,000 mt/year, is subject to Cheniere making a positive final investment decision to add capacity at the site of its Corpus Christi Liquefaction terminal in Texas beyond the seven-train midscale expansion it has currently proposed, Cheniere said in a statement.

Amid a surge in spot end-user prices since 2021, there has been a flurry of commercial activity in 2021 and during the first several months of 2022 tied to current and proposed US LNG export terminals, which offer fixed fees and destination flexibility.

In May, an affiliate of South Korea's POSCO agreed to buy 400,000 mt/year of LNG from Cheniere under a 20-year deal. Those volumes will be bought on a free-on-board basis starting in late 2026 from Cheniere's marketing unit, which among other things handles the sale and delivery of spot cargoes to global customers.

Cheniere said the POSCO deal will provide additional support for the 10 million mt/year mid-scale liquefaction expansion project it is developing at the site of its Texas export terminal. A final investment decision on the Stage 3 expansion is expected this summer. The POSCO deal is subject to Cheniere taking positive FID on the expansion project.

Previously, Cheniere announced long-term offtake deals covering 5.1 million mt/year of the Stage 3 expansion project's maximum expected capacity. The project is expected online by the end of 2025. Optionality at Corpus Christi Liquefaction and Cheniere's second export terminal, Sabine Pass Liquefaction in Louisiana, will allow Cheniere to cover some of the remaining capacity from other offtake commitments that Cheniere has secured.