Tellurian Inc. terminated agreements, including a stock purchase deal, with French energy major TotalEnergies SE related to Tellurian’s proposed LNG export facility in Louisiana, the Houston-based company said in a filing on July 12.

The agreements with TotalEnergies were terminated because “they are not consistent with the commercial agreements that Driftwood LNG LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and wholly owned subsidiary of Tellurian, has reached with other counterparties,” the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) commission said.

Tellurian is currently developing the Driftwood LNG export facility south of Lake Charles in Louisiana, which, once completed, will be able to export up to 27.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). The company also owns and operates upstream assets in the Haynesville shale formation.

Driftwood is one of more than a dozen North American LNG projects that have repeatedly pushed back decisions to start construction. However, over the past several weeks, Tellurian has signed two 10-year agreements to sell 3 MTPA of LNG with commodity traders Vitol and Gunvor Group.

Tellurian has also said it plans to start preparing the Driftwood site for construction later this summer and expects Betchel, its lead contractor to commence with the first phase of the project in first-quarter 2022.


RELATED:

Tellurian Signs Long-Term Lease for Driftwood LNG

Tellurian Proposes New Louisiana Pipeline to Bypass ‘Constrained’ Pathway


The stock purchase agreement with an affiliate of TotalEnergies, dated April 3, comprised of about 19.9 million shares of Tellurian common stock that “Total had agreed to purchase and Tellurian had agreed to issue and sell in a private placement to Total” in exchange for a cash purchase price of $10.064 per share, the SEC filing said.

TotalEnergies was still the third largest owner of Tellurian with a 4.95% interest or 20.29 million shares in the company, according to a report from Reuters which also noted TotalEnergies had sold 4.56 million shares of Tellurian stock as of May 11.

Reuters contributed to this article.