GLNG: Details disclosed of Cheniere’s LNG supply deal with France’s Engie

Leading US LNG producer Cheniere Energy struck a deal to supply the super-chilled fuel to France’s Engie earlier this year, according to a letter to the US Department of Energy (DoE) whose details have now been made public.
The deal is notable because last year Engie pulled out of talks over a potential supply deal with another US firm, NextDecade, having reportedly come under pressure from the French government not to buy LNG produced from shale gas. Hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to produce oil and gas from shale formations, is banned in France, and the move was seen as a signal that the country also opposed its use elsewhere. However, nearer-term energy demand appears to have overridden those concerns for now.
Under the newly disclosed deal, which was reached on June 23 according to the letter to the DoE, Cheniere will supply 0.4-1.2mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG to Engie over an 11-year period starting this year. The volumes will come from Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG terminal in Texas.
Cheniere did not disclose the deal at the time that it was reached, and has not publicly commented on the matter since it became public. However, the deal was followed by a number of others, with Cheniere having reached supply agreements with commodity trader Glencore and Chinese firms ENN Natural Gas and Sinochem in recent weeks, all of which it did announce publicly.