US energy services firm Baker Hughes booked record $5.6 billion of LNG equipment orders in 2023. The company said the outlook for LNG FIDs over the next few years “remains strong”.
Following record LNG equipment orders of some $3.5 billion in 2022, Baker Hughes booked $1.4 billion in LNG equipment orders in the first quarter of 2023, $900 million in the second quarter, and almost $2.5 billion in the third quarter.
In October, Baker Hughes said it is on track to book almost $9 billion of LNG equipment orders across 2022 and 2023, or about $5.5 billion for just 2023.
During the fourth quarter of this year, Baker Hughes booked about $800 million of LNG orders, including for Adnoc’s planned LNG export terminal in Al Ruwais, boosting the total to about $5.6 billion for the entire 2023.
“In 2023, we were extremely pleased to book almost 80 Mtpa of LNG orders, which outpaced FIDs of 57 Mtpa,” CEO Lorenzo Simonelli told analysts during the company’s earnings call on Wednesday.
“This variance was the result of the timing difference between orders and FIDs, which has been accentuated by the tightening LNG equipment market,” Simonelli said.
Simonelli said the outlook for FIDs over the next few years “remains strong”, and the company see projects progressing across all markets.
“For 2024 specifically, we expect LNG FIDs of around 65 Mtpa. However, it is important to note this includes a couple of major LNG orders that were booked during 2023, he said.
“As we look out to 2025 and 2026, we could see between 30-60 Mtpa of FIDs annually, bringing total potential LNG FIDs to between 125 Mtpa and 185 Mtpa through 2026,” he said.
Moreover, based on existing capacity, projects under construction, and future FIDs in the pipeline, “we have line of sight for global LNG installed capacity to reach 800 Mtpa by the end of 2030, representing an almost 75 percent increase in nameplate capacity from 2022 levels,” Simonelli said.
