Pieton said during the Technip Energies first-half earnings call on Thursday that the LNG market “remains buoyant owing to rising power consumption and the role of natural gas in balancing grid intermittency.”
He said that Technip Energies sees “compelling opportunities” in the near, medium, and long-term horizons.
“We are strategically positioned in the world’s most active LNG regions. Today, the US, the Middle East and East Africa are leading the way. Additionally, we are closely monitoring – and preparing for – emerging opportunities in South America and Asia,” he said-
“Furthermore, our leadership in deep offshore floating gas liquefaction has once again been confirmed,” he said.
Last month, Technip Energies announced a large contract worth up to 500 million euros ($578.5 million) for a floating LNG unit in Africa.
He said this initial award covers only the preliminary activities, with further order intake anticipated upon full contract award.
The contract is for preliminary work on Eni’s second FLNG project in Mozambique, Coral Norte (Coral North).
Answering a question regarding a final investment decision on Coral Norte, he said that “there are a few things that are probably missing on the client side, on the Eni side for them to take a full FID – it’s probably more administrative in terms of what needs to happen in-country than anything else.”
“The fact that we are announcing partial or some form of limiting notice to proceed is very positive. What I can share is that, from our standpoint, the work is progressing as if a full FID had been taken,” he said.
US LNG prospects
Pieton also discussed the progress on finalizing the price refresh exercise for both Kimmeridge’s Commonwealth LNG and Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG, the two primary LNG prospects in the US.
“We communicated on Commonwealth during Q1, and we have now completed the price refresh. I insist on that because I know everyone is very impatient about FID being reached on Commonwealth LNG and Lake Charles LNG – and we too, to some extent – but what is more important than a quick FID? It’s the quality of the FID, that’s why we stayed true to our disciplined approach,” he said.
He said it was “important to embark with our customers on a price refresh on projects that are very important by nature but also in terms of size for any company that would be undertaking this project.”
On Commonwealth, Technip Energies continues to progress with the client towards finalizing an EPC contract.
“We feel confident that all the building blocks that are needed leading to an FID are in place,” Pieton said.
“Same exercise for Lake Charles. The price refresh is still ongoing. Nonetheless, we have not totally completed the exercise. We started it just at the time of the Q1 earnings and I indicated at the time that it would last about four months. We are still in that phase and engaging with the customers with the early findings,” he said.
“There again we are feeling confident about the overall budget of the project. FID remains in the hands of our client. A disciplined approach and a reasonable level of optimism around FID date, or, as a minimum, around limited notice to proceed within the year. That’s for LNG prospects in the US,” Pieton said.
