Blackstone to reportedly sell 40% stake in Cheniere limited partnership to Brookfield

Asset management firm Blackstone Group reportedly said it would sell 40% of its stake in Cheniere Energy Partners to Brookfield Infrastructure and its own affiliated company.

Cheniere Energy Partners is a limited partnership formed by US-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer Cheniere Energy.

The value of the deal is undisclosed.

However, Brookfield negotiated a $34.25 a unit sale price that values the deal at $7bn, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the news agency, Blackstone will gain $5bn from the stake sale.

Cheniere Energy holds a 48.6% stake in Cheniere Energy Partners while the remaining interest is owned by Blackstone CQP Holdco.

The latest deal comes as LNG demand seems to have recovered after the Covid-19 pandemic had hit exports and forced buyers to cancel cargo shipments.

Cheniere Partners is engaged in developing Louisiana’s Sabine Pass liquefaction project. This LNG project will have a production capacity of about 30 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG through its six trains.

Five of the LNG trains at the Sabine Pass are in full operations, while a sixth one is currently under construction.

The sixth train is expected to be placed into service in 2023.

As on 30 June this year, Cheniere Partners achieved over 63% in project completion for the sixth train.

When operating at full capacity, the six-train project is expected to process over 4.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of natural gas into LNG.

In January, Cheniere Energy produced and exported its 1,000th cargo of LNG. The milestone shipment comes less than four years after the company’s first cargo was sent out from Sabine Pass LNG in Louisiana in February 2016.

The company’s other LNG project is Corpus Christi in South Texas, which has been operational since 2019.

The Corpus Christi LNG export project features two trains, which together produce a capacity of approximately 10mtpa.

Cheniere Partners is adding a third train at  Corpus Christi to increase the project’s capacity to around 15mtpa.

As of this June, more than 90% of the LNG train project is said to have been completed. The overall completion is expected by next year.

Last November, the US FERC gave its approval to Cheniere for the construction and operation of the Corpus Christi Stage 3 expansion project.

In November 2018, Blackstone and LLOG Exploration Company reportedly explored the sale of their Gulf of Mexico oil exploration joint venture (JV), LLOG Bluewater.