Houston Chronicle by Marissa Luck April 12, 2019
It was a Monday morning in 2008 when Meg Gentle heard the news that Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, sending the Dow industrial average down 500 points in one day and catapulting the world into a crippling financial disaster.
Gentle already was dealing with disasters of her own — both natural and man-made. Hurricane Ike had just landed on the Gulf Coast, inflicting billions of dollars of damage on the Houston region, forcing her then company, Cheniere Energy Inc., to temporarily shutter its gas terminal in Sabine Pass, La., and evacuate its employees. Gentle also was fighting to keep the company solvent as it plunged into its own financial crisis. She was then in charge of financial strategic planning at Cheniere, which had overleveraged its liquefied natural gas project to build a massive multibillion dollar import terminal as international competition intensified.
Gentle was waiting for a roughly $1.7 billion loan to close — on Monday, Sept. 15, 2008 — when the stock market crashed, potentially jeopardizing a refinancing deal the company desperately needed, she recalled. By a stroke of luck, the lenders had already put the money into Escrow before the financial markets crashed. It was the last high-yield bond to close in the market for the next 18 months as the economy reeled from the recession, Gentle said.
“I was happy to be lucky,†Gentle said with a laugh. Of course it took more than luck to pull Cheniere out of financial crisis, raise $25 billion in the midst of a recession and later transform what was supposed to be an import terminal into a project focused on exporting huge amounts of U.S. liquefied natural gas at a time when the country’s LNG exports were unknown.
While Cheniere’s former frontman Charif Souki is credited with transforming the U.S. liquefied natural gas industry, that transformation likely wouldn’t have been possible without the fortitude and financial planning that Gentle brought to the company, observers who know Gentle and the industry say. Now, Gentle wants to transform the U.S. LNG market again, this time as CEO of Tellurian Inc., which Souki formed in 2016 with former BG Group Chief Operating Officer Martin Houston after Souki was ousted from Cheniere. Gentle aims to grow Tellurian into a business capable of supplying the world with 10 percent of its liquefied natural gas needs within the next 10 years.
Through Tellurian, Gentle wants to transform how the world gets its natural gas by slashing production costs, lowering prices for customers and turning liquefied natural gas into a commodity that has the same flexibility and pricing transparency as oil, gold or wheat. By doing so, Gentle wants to hasten the global shift to the cleaner-burning fuel at a time when countries are searching for ways to power their economies with less greenhouse gas emissions.
“There is a larger mission at stake because we are bringing clean air to cities around the world that are very, very polluted … and as we talk about climate change, sustainability and lower carbon emissions, overall, natural gas is really a fundamental part of that solution,†Gentle said.
She still has her work cut out for her. Gentle must persuade investors to buy into a new business model — considered by some to be risky — as she seeks to raise $28 billion to build a network of gas pipelines and a 27 million metric ton liquefaction terminal, called Driftwood LNG, south of Lake Charles, La. If she’s successful, she and Souki could once again change how the world gets an energy source that is increasingly in demand.
An architect for energy
Gentle is more comfortable with change than most; she grew up in a military family where constant moving forced her to adapt. She runs 3 miles every morning before cramming her day with meetings and still manages to be home in time for dinner with her husband, Kirk, and their younger sons every night. She and Kirk raise Clydesdale horses on their ranch in La Grange when she isn’t traversing the globe for work. People who know her describe her as unflappably calm with a quiet confidence that is palpable in her measured responses to questions.
“In a time when the ‘art of the deal’ may call for threats, table pounding and calling one’s opponents some unfortunate names, Meg succeeds in negotiations by being precisely the opposite,†said Steven R. Miles, a lawyer who specializes in LNG as a partner with the international law firm Baker Botts. “She shows up at the table armed to he teeth with facts, relationships and integrity. She spends hours in preparation to make sure that when the meeting begins, she knows more about the deal, and indeed the industry, than does almost anyone else present.â€
Industry investors who have negotiated deals with Gentle said she is able to gain trust and mutual respect even from adversaries in the most bruising negotiations.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Tellurian-s-CEO-Meg-Gentle-is-on-a-mission-to-13762285.php
