Cheniere Energy Partners LP
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 22, 2024.
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FY2023 · Filed Feb 22, 2024
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Risks Relating to Our Financial Matters
An inability to source capital to supplement our available cash resources and existing revolving credit facilities could cause us to have inadequate liquidity and could materially and adversely affect our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.
As of December 31, 2023, we had, on a consolidated basis, $575 million of cash and cash equivalents, $56 million of restricted cash and cash equivalents, a total of $1.7 billion of available commitments under our credit facilities and $16.0 billion of total debt outstanding (before unamortized discount and debt issuance costs). SPL and CQP operate with independent capital structures as further detailed in Note 11—Debt of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. We incur, and will incur, significant interest expense relating to financing the assets at the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal, and we anticipate drawing on current committed facilities and/or incurring additional debt to finance the construction of the SPL Expansion Project if a positive FID is made. Our ability to fund our capital expenditures and refinance our indebtedness will depend on our ability to access additional project financing as well as the debt and equity capital markets. A variety of factors beyond our control could impact the availability or cost of capital, including domestic or international economic conditions, increases in key benchmark interest rates and/or credit spreads, the adoption of new or amended banking or capital market laws or regulations, lending institutions’ evolving policies on financing businesses linked to fossil fuels and the repricing of market risks and volatility in capital and financial markets. Our financing costs could increase or future borrowings or equity offerings may be unavailable to us or unsuccessful, which could cause us to be unable to pay or refinance our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs. We also rely on borrowings under our credit facilities to fund our capital expenditures. If any of the lenders in the syndicates backing these facilities was unable to perform on its commitments, we may need to seek replacement financing, which may not be available as needed, or may be available in more limited amounts or on more expensive or otherwise unfavorable terms.
Our ability to generate cash is substantially dependent upon the performance by customers under long-term contracts that we have entered into, and we could be materially and adversely affected if any significant customer fails to perform its contractual obligations for any reason.
Our future results and liquidity are substantially dependent upon performance by our customers to make payments under long-term contracts. As of December 31, 2023, we had SPAs with initial terms of 10 or more years with a total of 11 different third party customers.
While substantially all of our long-term third party customer arrangements are executed with a creditworthy parent company or secured by a parent company guarantee or other form of collateral, we are nonetheless exposed to credit risk in the event of a customer default that requires us to seek recourse.
Additionally, our long-term SPAs entitle the customer to terminate their contractual obligations upon the occurrence of certain events which include, but are not limited to: (1) if we fail to make available specified scheduled cargo quantities; (2) delays in the commencement of commercial operations; and (3) under the majority of our SPAs, upon the occurrence of certain events of force majeure.
Although we have not had a history of material customer default or termination events, the occurrence of such events are largely outside of our control and may expose us to unrecoverable losses. We may not be able to replace these customer arrangements on desirable terms, or at all, if they are terminated. As a result, our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Our subsidiaries may be restricted under the terms of their indebtedness from making distributions to us under certain circumstances, which may limit our ability to pay or increase distributions to our unitholders and could materially and adversely affect the market price of our common units.
The agreements governing our subsidiaries’ indebtedness restrict payments that our subsidiaries can make to us in certain events. For example, SPL is restricted from making distributions under agreements governing its indebtedness generally unless, among other requirements, appropriate reserves have been established for debt service using cash or letters of credit and a debt service coverage ratio of 1.25:1.00 is satisfied.
Our subsidiaries’ inability to pay distributions to us as a result of the foregoing restrictions in the agreements governing their indebtedness may inhibit our ability to pay or increase distributions to our unitholders, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.
Our efforts to manage commodity and financial risks through derivative instruments, including our IPM agreements, could adversely affect our earnings reported under GAAP and our liquidity.
We use derivative instruments to manage commodity, currency and financial market risks. The extent of our derivative position at any given time depends on our assessments of the markets for these commodities and related exposures. We currently account for our derivatives at fair value, with immediate recognition of changes in the fair value in earnings, as described in Note 3—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. Such valuations are primarily valued based on estimated forward commodity prices and are more susceptible to variability particularly when markets are volatile, which could have a significant adverse effect on our earnings reported under GAAP. For example, as described in Results of Operations in Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, our net income for the year ended December 31, 2022 included $1.1 billion of losses resulting from changes in the fair values of our derivatives, of which substantially all of such losses were related to commodity derivative instruments indexed to international LNG prices, mainly our IPM agreement in force.
These transactions and other derivative transactions have and may continue to result in substantial volatility in results of operations reported under GAAP, particularly in periods of significant commodity, currency or financial market variability. For certain of these instruments, in the absence of actively quoted market prices and pricing information from external sources, the value of these financial instruments involves management’s judgment or use of estimates. Changes in the underlying assumptions or use of alternative valuation methods could affect the reported fair value of these contracts.
In addition, our liquidity may be adversely impacted by the cash margin requirements of the commodities exchanges or the failure of a counterparty to perform in accordance with a contract. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, we had collateral posted with counterparties by us of zero and $35 million, respectively, which are included in margin deposits in our Consolidated Balance Sheets.
Restrictions in agreements governing our subsidiaries’ indebtedness may prevent our subsidiaries from engaging in certain beneficial transactions, which could materially and adversely affect us.
In addition to restrictions on the ability of us and SPL to make distributions or incur additional indebtedness, the agreements governing SPL’s indebtedness also contain various other covenants that may prevent them from engaging in beneficial transactions, including limitations on their ability to:
make certain investments;
purchase, redeem or retire equity interests;
issue preferred stock;
sell or transfer assets;
incur liens;
enter into transactions with affiliates;
consolidate, merge, sell or lease all or substantially all of its assets; and
enter into sale and leaseback transactions.
Any restrictions on the ability to engage in beneficial transactions could materially and adversely affect us.
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