US gas producer pens 20-year offtake with LNG project in Louisiana

April 30, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Expand Energy, a U.S. independent natural gas producer formed from the merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy in 2024, has signed on the dotted line for a multi-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) offtake with Delfin FLNG 1 in relation to the first floating LNG (FLNG) unit destined to be deployed at an American LNG project under development in Louisiana, United States.

Expand Energy inked a 20-year sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Delfin FLNG 1 for around 1.15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG offtake on April 22, 2026, subject to a final investment decision (FID) being made for the Delfin LNG project, which Delfin Midstream, a U.S.-based LNG export infrastructure development company, is developing in Louisiana.

The SPA enables approximately 1.15 million tonnes of LNG per annum to be bought from Delfin FLNG 1 at a Henry Hub price with a targeted start date in 2031. As a result, the gas producer’s previous SPAs, which were signed with Delfin and Gunvor Group in 2024, have been terminated.

This was for the purchase of 0.5 million tonnes of LNG per year at a Henry Hub price with a contract targeted start date in 2028 to be then delivered to Gunvor on a free-on-board (FOB) basis with the sales price linked to the Japan Korea Marker (JKM) for a period of 20 years, representing 0.5 mtpa of Delfin’s up to 2 mtpa HOA with Gunvor.

Delfin LNG is a brownfield deepwater port requiring minimal additional infrastructure investment to support up to three FLNG vessels producing up to 13.2 mtpa of LNG. The developer acquired the UTOS pipeline, the largest natural gas pipeline in the Gulf of America (U.S. Gulf of Mexico).

The project has received a deepwater port license from the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and approval from the Department of Energy for long-term LNG exports to countries that do not have a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.

The latest LNG offtake agreement comes months after Delfin made arrangements to extend a letter of award (LOA) with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) for the project’s first FLNG unit, following another 20-year deal for 1 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the project.