U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer Tellurian Inc said on Thursday it had signed a 10-year sale and purchase agreement with commodity trader Vitol for 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.
It is the second 10-year, 3-MTPA agreement Tellurian has announced in a week, following a deal with commodity trader Gunvor Group. Each deal is worth about $12 billion in revenue over the contract period.
Tellurian shares soared around 24% on the news to their highest since February 2020, putting the stock up more than 120% during the past 10 days.
The LNG would come from Tellurian’s proposed 27.6-MTPA Driftwood export project in Louisiana.
Tellurian Executive Chairman Charif Souki said in a video this week that the company remained “highly confident we will start construction this summer and issue notice to proceed to Bechtel in the first quarter of next year.”
Tellurian has a contract with Bechtel to build the liquefaction plant.
Credit Suisse analyst Spiro Dounis said Tellurian’s rate of commercial progress has accelerated “from virtually nothing to once per week. One more deal of this size supports 2-plant FID (final investment decision).”
Tellurian has said the first phase of Driftwood would cost about $16.8 billion and produce about 16.5 MTPA of LNG.
Tellurian CEO Octavio Simoes said the company “continues to execute on our plan to market Driftwood LNG volumes on indices that our customers want.”
The Vitol and Gunvor deals were indexed to a combination of the Japan Korea Marker (JKM), which is trading near $11 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), and the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), which is trading close to its highest since September 2018.
The U.S. Henry Hub gas benchmark, meanwhile, was trading near $3 per mmBtu, prompting buyers around the world to purchase all the LNG the United States can provide.
