Australia’s Woodside Energy and Saudi Aramco have signed an agreement to explore cooperation opportunities that may include the Saudi company buying a stake in the Louisiana LNG project.

The agreement is non-binding, Woodside said, adding that it could involve “Aramco’s potential acquisition of an equity interest in and LNG offtake from the Louisiana LNG project.”

Woodside’s CEO, Meg O’Neill, said the deal was “another demonstration of the ongoing interest Louisiana LNG is generating among high-quality potential investors, following our recent agreement with Stonepeak to acquire a 40% interest in the project’s infrastructure holding company.”

The Australian energy major announced the final investment decision on the $17.5-billion facility in late April, with first production scheduled for 2029. The facility is designed to have three liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 16.5 million tons annually.

This would boost Woodside’s total LNG capacity to 24 million tons annually by next decade, the company said earlier. Woodside also has permits to expand the Louisiana LNG facility by another two trains, which would boost its capacity to a total 27.6 million tons annually.

Woodside bought the former Driftwood LNG project as part of its acquisition of Tellurian for $1.2 billion last year. The deal “adds a scalable US LNG development opportunity to our existing approximately 10 Mtpa of equity LNG in Australia,” Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill said at the time. Then, this year, reports emerged that Woodside was looking for partners in the projects, seeking to sell up to 50% of the ownership.

The Australian company has already sold a 40% stake in Louisiana LNG to infrastructure investors Stonepeak, with the latter committing to cover $5.7 billion of the total capex for the project, equal to 75% of the 2025 and 2026 capex. Woodside wants to sell another 20-30% in the project. Woodside eyes net operating cash income of some $2 billion annually from Louisiana LNG, beginning the 2030s.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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