Cheniere, Venture Global shares surge amid Iran attacks on Qatar LNG infrastructure

Ira Joseph, a fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, said that some of the lost Qatari supply could be offset by new US capacity expected to come online from Golden Pass LNG owned by Exxon Mobil and QatarEnergy in Texas, in addition to three other plants under construction by Sempra, NextDecade and Venture Global. Joseph said the key question moving forward is whether Qatar’s massive North Field expansion will also be affected.

“If it is impacted, then structurally we have to adjust our LNG prices higher,” he said. “But if we do that, we also have to weaken our demand growth outlook.” Analysts at Jefferies warned that prolonged outages could lead to sustained higher prices, although there will be some demand destruction and coal-for-gas switching. Buyers, however, are increasingly prioritizing supply diversity and geopolitical resilience over the lowest-cost LNG, they added.

(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Nathan Crooks and Nick Zieminski)