TotalEnergies SE CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the firm is leaning on its already outsized role as a leader in U.S. LNG to expand its supply chain positions and grow its hub of natural gas projects centered in Texas.
TotalEnergies is currently the largest trader of U.S. liquefied natural gas and is the second largest LNG seller in the world. It has targeted increasing its LNG sales to 50 million metric tons/year (mmty) by 2025.
The economics of supply and the opportunities for advancing new, cleaner technology in the United States has made it a valuable region for the French firm’s growth platform, especially during its divestment process from Russia, Pouyanné said Monday in Houston during CERAWeek by S&P Global.
“We are investing in projects which are well positioned across the cost curve,” Pouyanné said. “The idea is that we’re not only a producer, we’re a big marketer. It’s a good industry. We’re happy to invest in it and in Texas. It’s worth it to continue to look at LNG.”
TotalEnergies helped push NextDecade Corp.’s Rio Grande LNG project in South Texas to a final investment decision (FID) last year after agreeing to a 5.4 mmty offtake and 16.67% equity deal for the project’s first three trains. TotalEnergies and its investment partners also bought an almost 18% stake in NextDecade.
NextDecade management told investors earlier in the month that TotalEnergies could take at least 3 mmty from the second phase of Rio Grande LNG, helping underpin an FID for the project by the end of the year.
Along with its investments in Texas, TotalEnergies and the other investment partners in Sempra Infrastructure’s Cameron LNG in Louisiana have been negotiating construction contracts for a 6.8 mmty expansion at the facility.
Pouyanné said its current foothold in the U.S. gas market and the opportunities for growth have led it to make further investments in the supply chain. The firm disclosed Monday it had acquired non-operated Eagle Ford Shale assets in Texas and is moving to acquire a carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) business arm in the United States.
Under an agreement with Houston’s Talos Energy Inc., TotalEnergies could acquire 100% of Talos Low Carbon Solutions, which would give it a 25% stake in the Bayou Bend CCUS project planned for the Gulf of Mexico. The project, also backed by Chevron Corp. and Equinor ASA, could become one of the largest CCUS solutions in the United States, with nearly 140,000 gross acres of pore space for permanent carbon dioxide sequestration and gross potential storage resources of more than 1 billion metric tons.
The supermajor also disclosed its plans to study using hydrogen and sequestered carbon to export fuel that mimics methane, often called e-methane or syngas. The firm agreed to join seven other companies — including Sempra Infrastructure and Tree Energy Solutions (TES) — to form an “e-natural gas coalition.”
TotalEnergies has already been working with TES on a 0.1-0.2 mmty e-methane export project dubbed Live Oak that could come online in the United States by 2030. Sempra Infrastructure is also studying plans with Japanese partners to eventually use the Cameron LNG terminal as a hub for e-methane exports.
