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 Relationship with Our General Partner
We are entirely dependent on our general partner, Cheniere, including employees of Cheniere and its subsidiaries, for key personnel, and the unavailability of skilled workers or Cheniere’s failure to attract and retain qualified personnel could adversely affect us. In addition, changes in our general partner’s senior management or other key personnel could affect our business results.
As of December 31, 2023, Cheniere and its subsidiaries had 1,605 full-time employees, including 501 employees who directly supported the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal operations. We have contracted with subsidiaries of Cheniere to provide the personnel necessary for the operation, maintenance and management of the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal, the Creole Trail Pipeline and construction and operation of the Liquefaction Project. We depend on Cheniere’s subsidiaries hiring and retaining personnel sufficient to provide support for the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal. Cheniere competes with other liquefaction projects in the United States and globally, other energy companies and other employers to attract and retain qualified personnel with the technical skills and experience required to construct and operate our facilities and pipelines and to provide our customers with the highest quality service. We also compete with any other project Cheniere is developing, including its liquefaction project at Corpus Christi, Texas, for the time and expertise of Cheniere’s personnel. Further, we and Cheniere face competition for these highly skilled employees in the immediate vicinity of the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal and more generally from the Gulf Coast hydrocarbon processing and construction industries.
The executive officers of our general partner are officers and employees of Cheniere and its affiliates. We do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any personnel, and our general partner does not have any employment contracts or other agreements with key personnel binding them to provide services for any particular term. The loss of the services of any of these individuals could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, our future success will depend in part on our general partner’s ability to engage, and Cheniere’s ability to attract and retain, additional qualified personnel.
A shortage in the labor pool of skilled workers, remoteness of our site locations, general inflationary pressures, changes in applicable laws and regulations or labor disputes could make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel and could require an increase in the wage and benefits packages that are offered, thereby increasing our operating costs. In addition, we are also subject to increased competition for skilled workers from new entrants to the LNG market. Any increase in our operating costs could materially and adversely affect our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.
Our general partner and its affiliates have conflicts of interest and limited fiduciary duties, which may permit them to favor their own interests to the detriment of us and our unitholders.
Cheniere owns and controls our general partner, which has sole responsibility for conducting our business and managing our operations. Some of our general partner’s directors are also directors of Cheniere, and certain of our general partner’s officers are officers of Cheniere. Therefore, conflicts of interest may arise between Cheniere and its affiliates, including our general partner, on the one hand, and us and our unitholders, on the other hand. In resolving these conflicts, our general partner may favor its own interests and the interests of its affiliates over the interests of us and our unitholders. These conflicts include, among others, the following situations:
neither our partnership agreement nor any other agreement requires Cheniere to pursue a business strategy that favors us. Cheniere’s directors and officers have a fiduciary duty to make these decisions in favor of the owners of Cheniere, which may be contrary to our interests:
our general partner controls the interpretation and enforcement of contractual obligations between us, on the one hand, and Cheniere, on the other hand, including provisions governing administrative services and acquisitions;
our general partner is allowed to take into account the interests of parties other than us, such as Cheniere and its affiliates, in resolving conflicts of interest, which has the effect of limiting its fiduciary duty to us and our unitholders;
our general partner has limited its liability and reduced its fiduciary duties under the partnership agreement, while also restricting the remedies available to our unitholders for actions that, without these limitations, might constitute breaches of fiduciary duty;
Cheniere is not limited in its ability to compete with us. Cheniere is not restricted from competing with us and is free to develop, operate and dispose of, and is currently developing, LNG facilities, pipelines and other assets without any obligation to offer us the opportunity to develop or acquire those assets;
our general partner determines the amount and timing of asset purchases and sales, capital expenditures, borrowings, issuances of additional partnership securities, and the establishment, increase or decrease in the amounts of reserves, each of which can affect the amount of cash that is distributed to our unitholders;
our general partner determines the amount and timing of any capital expenditures and whether a capital expenditure is a maintenance capital expenditure, which reduces operating surplus, or an expansion capital expenditure, which does not reduce operating surplus. This determination can affect the amount of cash that is distributed to our unitholders;
our partnership agreement does not restrict our general partner from causing us to pay it or its affiliates for any services rendered on terms that are fair and reasonable to us or entering into additional contractual arrangements with any of these entities on our behalf;
our general partner intends to limit its liability regarding our contractual and other obligations and, in some circumstances, is entitled to be indemnified by us;
our general partner may exercise its limited right to call and purchase common units if it and its affiliates own more than 80% of the common units; and
our general partner decides whether to retain separate counsel, accountants or others to perform services for us.
We also have agreements to compensate and to reimburse expenses of affiliates of Cheniere. All of these agreements involve conflicts of interest between us, on the one hand, and Cheniere and its other affiliates, on the other hand. In addition, Cheniere is currently operating three Trains at a natural gas liquefaction facility near Corpus Christi, Texas and CCL has entered into fixed price SPAs with third-parties for the sale of LNG from this natural gas liquefaction facility, and may continue to enter in commercial arrangements with respect to this liquefaction facility that might otherwise have been entered into with respect to any of our future Trains.
We have or will have numerous contracts and commercial arrangements with Cheniere and its affiliates, including future SPAs, transportation, interconnection, marketing and gas balancing arrangements, as well as servicing and other agreements and arrangements that cannot now be anticipated. In those circumstances where additional contracts with Cheniere and its affiliates may be necessary or desirable, additional conflicts of interest may be involved.
In the event Cheniere favors its interests over our interests, we may have less available cash to make distributions on our units than we otherwise would have if Cheniere had favored our interests.
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