Back in 2019 when it seemed everyone and their dog looked to partner up to build an LNG export facility on the Gulf Coast, Dallas-based Energy Transfer caught a meaty bone. A bone in the form of a framework agreement with Shell to share the estimated cost of $10.9 billion to $13.2 billion to build the 16.5 MTPA Lake Charles LNG terminal project where ET already owned the existing regasification facility in Lake Charles, La., originally built in 1982. This would mark the beginning of changes to Energy Transfer’s LNG strategies but certainly not the end of them.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest from ET with a brief flashback to 2020 when it took over complete development of the Lake Charles LNG project from Shell. Over the years, key partners would come and go. Political moods would sour and brighten. And ET’s decision to advance the LNG project would ebb and flow.

As one of the nation’s largest midstream companies—the first of its ilk to open an office in Beijing to meet China’s demand for ethane and LNG—Energy Transfer announced in mid-December last year the suspension of its development of Lake Charles LNG but—wait!—will still remain open to discussions with third parties with an interest in developing the project. ET’s existing regasification assets at Lake Charles also include four LNG storage tanks, two deep water docks in the Calcasieu Channel, and other infrastructure assets. In the meantime, Energy Transfer plans to spend up to $5.5 billion this year on its natural gas network and wait for the Lake Charles LNG phone to ring.