Everyone gets jealous sometimes, including Charif Souki, chief executive of Cheniere Energy. He told a year-end senior leadership reception of Houston’s Young Professionals in Energy he’s jealous of what the organization is doing.
“Young professionals in energy: The first thing I want to tell you is I am jealous, obviously because you are young, but also because this is probably one of the most exciting times in our business I have ever seen,” he said.
He went on to say that predicting the future is just not possible. “You will have enough opponents and experts, and economists and analysts who will tell you what is going to happen five years from now, but I guarantee you one thing—they will be wrong,” Souki said.
No one predicted five years ago the situation the country is in today. There was a point that the U.S. was worried it would run out of energy and would have to import everything, and it was wrong, he added.
“In the last five years, a miracle happened, we found an abundance of energy in this country, and the tables have completely reversed,” he said. “To put it in perspective, what has happened to the cost of energy in this county—when you put it together and you compute it—is the equivalent of a $300 billion per year tax cut. We spend less money on gas, less money than any other country in the world on our gasoline. We heat our homes significantly cheaper than anywhere else. We turn our lights on for less.”
There are incredible energy opportunities in the U.S. right now, Souki pointed out. He said that in 2012, 42,000 wells were drilled at a cost of $200 billion and $18 billion was spent on infrastructure, that will rise to more than $216 billion over 12 years.
He also pointed out that the “U.S. is on pace to be a net gas exporter by mid-decade.” The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast released in September stated that the country has cut imports by 61% since 2005, he said.
While U.S. energy is in a positive place right now, there are certain things that must be done to ensure that peak potential is reached. Souki’s presentation said that $200 billion in capital investment will be needed in midstream and downstream by 2025 and “America must reconfigure, and frequently reverse, its pipelines, rails and marine terminals to meet new energy delivery needs.”
The right combination of things will allow the U.S. to become not only a net energy exporter but also bring unemployment rates down, not just in energy-producing states but at a national level. Souki sees the potential and “Cheniere Energy is contributing what is necessary to meet the needs of our energy moment.”
The company is currently spending $5 billion to build a liquefaction project at Sabine Pass in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, which is employing 2,000 construction workers and will be expanding that to 4,000.
“We are on our way to investing $25 billion in future LNG projects,” he added.
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