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Blackstone to Invest $2 Billion in Cheniere Energy

  • Blackstone Group LP is expected to announce a $2 billion equity investment in Cheniere Energy Partners on Monday as a bet on US natural-gas exports, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.Blackstone's investment will allow Cheniere Energy to build a gas-liquefaction plant in Sabine Pass, Louisiana, the paper said.Blackstone's investment is being made via special units in Cheniere that will convert into common units once the facility is operating, the sources told the paper.
  • Cheniere may be allowed to raise $3 billion in debt for the $5 billion that is needed to build the first of two planned export facilities that together will be able to ship 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas daily. The facility is expected to begin operations by 2016, according to the WSJ.US producers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shippers are scrambling to develop export plants after a sudden surge in domestic natural gas production, thanks to shale gas, swamped the market and pushed gas prices way below global levels.In December, Cheniere Energy had proposed to build a second LNG export plant on the US Gulf Coast, after buyers across the world lined up to buy the cheap American fuel.Blackstone and Cheniere Energy could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

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