Heather Hohensee, director of government and public affairs for Tellurian, gave the West Cal Chamber an update on the Driftwood LNG project.

“The big news, as some of you may have heard if you saw the announcement by Tellurian Chairman Charif Souki last week, is that the company has secured contracts for sales of liquefied natural gas, and construction will begin in April.”

Ten-year takeoff agreements were signed with Gunvor, Vitol and Shell. Tellurian is developing a low-cost, global natural gas business to provide consumers worldwide with a more reliable, cleaner energy supply, according to Hohensee who works locally for the Houston-based American company.

The company’s development portfolio includes natural gas production, LNG marketing and trading, and infrastructure that includes the 27.6-mtpa Driftwood LNG export facility to be located in Carlyss along the Calcasieu Ship Channel and an associated pipeline.

“We have access to enough capital to complete the first year of construction,” Souki said in his Friday, February 4 announcement.

Hohensee said the last time she gave the West Cal Chamber members an update, Tellurian had secured its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) lump sum contract with Bechtel for over $15 billion.

“With Bachtel, we had gotten to our engineering status about 30 percent complete making the project shovel ready and were focusing on securing contracts, contracts to sell liquefied natural gas around the world. Then 2020 hit.”

The pandemic and resulting quarantine had an impact on many markets, and the energy market was no exception, she said.

“We’re still obviously facing the challenges with COVID, but the world did start opening up.” The demand for natural gas increased accordingly, and Tellurian focused on financing.

Hohensee said the company has completed the purchase and lease of about 1,000 acres of real estate, ensuring an ideal construction site. This includes its long-term lease option exercised in June 2021 with the Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District on the 477-acre site in Sulphur.

Road improvements remain top of mind to help mitigate traffic congestion during construction.

“One of the projects that we started last year and are currently working on, and hoping to complete before Bechtel is onsite, is improving the intersection at Highway 27 and Burton Shipyard Road,” she said.

She said the demand for natural gas globally has increased to the point that it exceeds the demand before the pandemic. Other countries are reducing the use of coal to meet climate objectives and will need more natural gas.

The plant in Carlyss will focus on the first phase, which is the first two plants, but the full scope would be five plants.

“We’re looking – at peak – at having 6,500 construction workers and once fully operational, 350-400 employees. But the important thing to remember is when you have a new industry or new facility like this come into your community, it creates more jobs, so it has a trickle-down effect,” she said.