Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has purchased a 5.1% stake valued $615 million in Cheniere Energy Inc., America’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The country’s main sovereign wealth fund disclosed its holding in a filing dated September 14. It is now Cheniere’s fourth-largest shareholder, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The Trump administration views LNG exports as the economy booster and considers shipments a foreign policy tool for spreading American influence abroad. Since the U.S. began shipping shale gas overseas in 2016, it rose to the ranks of the world’s top LNG suppliers.
In 2018, Cheniere Energy signed an agreement with CPC Corporation, Taiwan to supply liquefied natural gas. It provides for shale gas supply for 25 years for approximately $25 billion. According to the SWF Institute, ADIA has about $580 billion in assets and is the world’s third-biggest government wealth fund.
Cheniere made it to the list of Fortune 500 companies in 2018, two years after it began exports. Houston-based Cheniere operates two export facilities: Corpus Christi in Texas and Sabine Pass in Louisiana.
The aggregate nominal production capacity Cheniere’s Corpus Christi facility will be approximately 15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG, from 2021. The Sabine Pass facility’s production is expected to touch 30 mtpa of LNG in 2022.
The company is generating $4.3 billion annually from Sabine Pass and the smaller terminal in Texas through its fixed-fee contract structure, protecting it from the collapse in prices after the Covid-19 pandemic and a mild winter hammered consumption. More than 85% of the production volume at Sabine Pass is contracted and is expected to earn about $3.3 billion in fixed fees annually by 2022.
