one year on- where are the customers ?

LNG Ltd. in Talks With Six Potential Customers on U.S. Project

Thursday, July 23, 2015 06:17 PM
by James Paton
(Bloomberg) -- Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. is in talks with six more potential customers after signing its first deal to process gas at a U.S. plant for export.

LNG Ltd. is seeking to complete its second agreement this quarter for the proposed Magnolia LNG project, Managing Director Maurice Brand said Thursday by phone from Perth. The company will liquefy gas delivered to its plant in Louisiana in return for monthly payments under the so-called tolling deal announced Thursday with Meridian LNG Holdings Corp.

“We have six parties that we are well advanced with on discussions on tolling agreements, and in one case, we are in quite active negotiations,” Brand said.

LNG Ltd., which has attracted investors including Boston-based Baupost Group LLC, is moving ahead with plans for its U.S. project even as falling energy prices threaten to stall the development of new export plants globally.

LNG Ltd. has been trying to convert four preliminary agreements with companies, including Meridian, into binding deals, and has started talking to new groups as well, he said.

LNG Ltd. fell 6.9 percent to A$3.64 at the close in Sydney. The shares have risen 50 percent this year.

Meanwhile, plans for the Fisherman’s Landing LNG project in Queensland, Australia, are “probably on life support,” Brand said. There’s a “low probability” the project will proceed, he said