Australia’s Woodside Energy on Monday said it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire U.S. liquefied natural gas developer Tellurian, including its U.S. Gulf Coast Driftwood LNG project, for a total value of $1.2 billion.
The transaction involves an all-cash payment of some $900 million, or $1 per share of outstanding Tellurian common stock, the Australian company said in a release, which represents a more than 75% premium to the last closing price of Tellurian.
The acquisition “positions Woodside to be a global LNG powerhouse,” said the company’s CEO, Meg O’Neill, in the release. The transaction adds a scalable U.S. LNG development opportunity to Woodside’s existing 10 metric tonnes per annum of equity LNG in Australia, she said.
Tellurian has been searching for financial partners to fund the Driftwood LNG facility. In May, it said it would sell its upstream asset to pay off some of its debt.
The Driftwood LNG project has seen many setbacks, including the cancellation of some LNG supply deals amid concerns over the company’s ability to finish the project.
Woodside said it is aiming for the project to be ready for a final investment decision for Phase 1 by the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.
“Woodside expects to leverage its global LNG expertise to unlock this fully permitted development and expand its relationship with Bechtel, which is the EPC contractor for both Driftwood LNG and our Pluto Train 2 project in Australia,” Woodside said.
Source: Mint