(Updates with comment from CEO in third paragraph, background information throughout)
*Woodside bullish on LNG demand despite TotalEnergies’ market glut warning
*Louisiana LNG facility is largest foreign investment in state’s history
*Exports to target Europe and Asia, starting in 2029
By Arathy Somasekhar and Curtis Williams
HOUSTON, Sept 15 – Woodside Energy expects global LNG demand to grow 50% over the next decade, CEO Meg O’Neill said on Monday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Australian company’s Louisiana LNG export facility, waving off concerns that U.S. supply was expanding too quickly. The complex, the largest foreign investment in Louisiana’s history, was the first U.S. LNG project to get the financial go-ahead after President Donald Trump returned to office in January and promised to unleash U.S. energy onto the world.
Exports are expected to begin in 2029 and will target demand from Europe and Asia. “The market is there, and that’s with a number of nations around the world not even being able to participate in this market yet because of price sensitivity. So we’re very bullish on LNG demand for the long term,” O’Neill said at the event in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. O’Neill said she took recent comments from TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne, who warned of a potential market glut in the wake of all the new capacity coming online in the U.S., with a “pinch of salt.”
Woodside, headquartered in Perth, has significant experience in its native Australia, but the Louisiana facility is its first foray into owning and operating a U.S. LNG export facility.
The first phase is expected to cost $17.5 billion and produce 16.5 million metric tons per annum of the superchilled gas. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, speaking at the ceremony, said U.S. energy policy was designed to bring stability to world markets. Markus Hatzelmann, deputy consul general at the German consulate in Houston, also attended and said the European nation would receive a substantial share of gas from the facility.
“It’s a very tangible expression of the strong transatlantic energy partnership between Germany and the United States,” he said.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana and Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Nathan Crooks and Nia Williams)