Australia's Woodside Buys US LNG Developer Tellurian for $1.2B

Australian oil and gas company Woodside Energy has entered into definitive agreement to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer Tellurian, including its owned and operated US Gulf Coast Driftwood LNG development opportunity, for a total of $1.2 billion.

The consideration for the transaction is an all-cash payment of approximately $900 million, with the implied enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion, including debt.

The acquisition of Tellurian and its Driftwood LNG development strengthens it position as one of the leading independent LNG companies, adding a high-quality, fully-permitted U.S. LNG development option to its portfolio.

Driftwood LNG is a fully permitted, pre-final investment decision (FID) development opportunity located near Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The current development plan comprises five LNG trains through four phases, with a total permitted capacity of 27.6 Mtpa.

The foundation development includes Phase 1 (11 Mtpa) and Phase 2 (5.5 Mtpa). Woodside is targeting FID readiness for Phase 1 of the Driftwood LNG development opportunity from the first quarter of 2025, according to the company.

The construction of the project has already begun, with pilings for Trains 1 and 2 complete, foundation work in progress and pilings underway for the LNG tanks.

“The acquisition of Tellurian and its Driftwood LNG development opportunity positions Woodside to be a global LNG powerhouse. It adds a scalable US LNG development opportunity to our existing approximately 10 Mtpa of equity LNG in Australia.

“Having a complementary US position would allow us to better serve customers globally and capture further marketing optimization opportunities across both the Atlantic and Pacific Basins. “The Driftwood LNG development opportunity is competitively advantaged.

“Woodside expects to leverage its global LNG expertise to unlock this fully permitted development and expand our relationship with Bechtel which is the EPC contractor for both Driftwood LNG and our Pluto Train 2 project in Australia,” said Meg O’Neill, Woodside’s CEO.