- NextDecade rose 16%, while Venture Global rose 14.5% and Cheniere Energy rose 6%.
- Qatar said that Iranian missile attacks on Ras Laffan, the site of the country's core LNG processing operations, caused "extensive damage."
- NEXT, LNG, and VG were among the top 10 trending stocks on Stocktwits late Wednesday, although their retail sentiment was ‘neutral’ for VG and NEXT and ‘bearish’ for LNG.
Reports of significant damage to the main LNG hub in Qatar, one of the world's top LNG exporters, lifted U.S. LNG stocks on Wednesday as traders positioned for a potential shift in demand from Europe and Asia toward U.S. exporters.
NextDecade Corp. (NEXT) shares jumped 16% to a nearly six-month high, while Venture Global (VG) shares jumped 14.5% to their highest level since last September. Shares of Cheniere Energy (LNG), one of the largest LNG exporters globally, rose nearly 6%. The stocks gained 0.8% to 3.5% in the after-market session.
Qatar's state oil giant QatarEnergy said on Wednesday that Iranian missile attacks on Ras Laffan, the site of the country's core LNG processing operations, caused "extensive damage", while the UAE shut gas facilities after intercepting missiles early on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Global Gas Disruption?
Qatar is among the top LNG exporters globally, accounting for about 19% share of global exports, according to the International Gas Union (IGU). Nearly all of its exports flow through Ras Laffan and any disruption here affects global supply.
Cheniere Energy is the largest LNG exporter in the U.S. and among the biggest globally. NextDecade is an emerging LNG producer developing the Rio Grande LNG project in Texas, a large-scale export facility with a planned capacity of about 48 million tonnes per annum, though only part of that capacity is currently under construction.
Venture Global is a fast-growing U.S. LNG exporter focused on building low-cost, rapidly deployable export terminals.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned that if Iran continued targeting Qatar’s energy facilities, America would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field.” He, however, denied any prior knowledge of Israel attacking South Pars, pushing back against reports that the strike was coordinated with and approved by his administration.
Investors Pile Into LNG Names
On Wednesday, nearly 12 million NextDecade shares traded hands, and 55.4 million Venture Global shares were exchanged, nearly five times their average trading volume, according to Stocktwits data. Cheniere’s 5.1 million trading volume was just under three times its average.
The ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas (BOIL), a high-risk fund that bets on short-term moves in natural gas prices, rose 7.9%.
NEXT, LNG, and VG were among the top 10 trending stocks on Stocktwits late in the day, although their retail sentiment was ‘neutral’ for VG and NEXT and ‘bearish’ for LNG. “Risk shifting from tankers -> export infrastructure. Markets may need to price Gulf logistics risk, not just shipping disruption,” a user said.
Recent Updates
Venture Global said on Wednesday that it raised $8.6 billion in project financing for the second phase of the company’s third project, Venture Global CP2 LNG (CP2). CP2 will have a peak production capacity of 29 million tons per annum, with output expected to be supplied predominantly to customers in Europe and Asia.
Last week, NextDecade said federal regulators approved the company to start work on two additional LNG production units, called trains – a development that also helped drive momentum in the stock.
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