Natural gas consumption in Asia is growing at fast tempo because of various factors such as economic growth in the region, urbanization, coal-to-gas switch at power and industry sector. Due to geographical characteristics and lack of international pipeline connections between countries in the continent, majority of natural gas exported to Asian consumers is transported by tankers on the sea in the form of liquefied natural gas. As Asian market is the most lucrative market with the fastest demand growth, the competitions between LNG sellers for market share in Asian market are strengthening. The competitions accelerated, especially after the introduction of large volume of incremental supply into the market by new exporters from the U.S., Australia, and Russia. Cheniere Energy, the first exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the lower 48 states of U.S.
has not adopted the traditional price formation mechanism and business model. Traditionally, prices of long-term LNG contracts have been indexed to the price of competing fuels, such as crude oil. The company adopted a pricing mechanism and business model based on a cost-plus system. Cheniere Energy opted for the safer and the risk-free pricing system, that annually guarantees a fixed amount of revenue to the seller. The company earns the same amount of money, regardless of natural gas price dynamics in the domestic and international market, but possibly with less revenue. However, by introducing and successfully implementing the safer and risk- free business model, Cheniere Energy, a company of a relatively smaller size in comparison with major oil and gas companies, became an example to other smaller-sized companies in the U.S. The company’s business model demonstrated how to enter and operate LNG business amid increasing competitions among sellers in the U.S. and international market.