Hugh Urbantke
Chief Financial Officer
Freeport LNG Development, L.P.
333 Clay Street, Suite 5050
Houston, TX77002-4310
713-980-2888
Website:
Hugh Urbantke has overthirty years of international experience in project management, business development, operations and strategic planning. As CFO of Freeport LNG, Hugh is responsible for all aspects of the financial and commercial development of the Company. He has extensive experience in the liquefied natural gas industry, including negotiating and administering LNG and gas sales contracts, marine transportation agreements, financing arrangements and terminal use agreements. Prior to joining Freeport LNG, Hugh was Commercial Vice President for BG LNG Services, acquiring and managing LNG supply for BG’s capacity at the Lake Charles, Louisiana, LNG terminal. Previously, he was Vice President of LNG Business Development for Enron Global Gas in Singapore, responsible for Enron’s Asian LNG development. Before that, Mr. Urbantke worked in various operations of VICO Indonesia for fifteen years, providing marketing, financial and commercial support for the Indonesian LNG trade.
Company Overview: Freeport LNG Development, L.P. owns and operates an LNG receiving terminal on Quintana Island, near Freeport, Texas. The receiving terminal went into commercial operation on June 12, 2008 and has vaporization capacity of over 2 billion cubic feet per day. The import capacity (1.55 Bcf per day) has been contracted under long-term, use-or-pay terminal use agreements with ConocoPhillips Company, The Dow Chemical Company and Mitsubishi Corporation
Since June 2008, when the terminal entered commercial operations, the North American natural gas industry has gone through a significant change—the shale gas revolution. Now, natural gas resource estimates indicate that the U.S. has sufficient natural gas supplies for one hundred years or more. This increase in domestic natural gas resources has resulted in a drop in prices to the point at which US natural gas prices are among the lowest in the world. Freeport LNG believes that the abundance of domestic reserves and low prices mean that the US gas market itself should become a source for LNG export. Given this dramatic reversal of market conditions, Freeport LNG has launched its natural gas liquefaction project, proposing to add approximately 13.2 million metric tons per year (1.9 Bcf per day) of liquefaction capability to its Quintana Island terminal facilities. Subject to government approvals and financing, the liquefaction facilities are expected to go into commercial operations in 2017.