I have had the pleasure of interviewing and introducing Sean several times over the years, and he is a true energy leader on the front lines. With over 30 years in the Global Energy, Trade, and Transportation markets, he has undertaken a new challenge where the United States needs the talent to help keep our energy security at the forefront.
Our past podcasts were when he was at the Port of Corpus Christi and was at the helm of a fantastic team that had made the port one of the world’s top 3 global energy export hubs.
In today’s episode, Sean covers the global LNG trading market and the underserved interests of the United States. Sit back, get your popcorn, and enjoy listening to Sean.
Thanks, Sean, for your leadership and your time. – Stu
Connect and follow Sean on his LinkedIn Here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanstrawbridge/
01:42 – Voyager Energy Partners aims to export American oil and gas, ensuring clean and safe practices.
05:37 – Voyager Energy Partners controls vessels for LNG, emphasizing accountability in trade agreements.
07:45 – Are you also looking at the short term and long term contracts?
10:47 – Emphasizes U.S. LNG export market growth and diversification in global energy portfolios.
13:30 – Discusses Japan’s LNG use, vessel needs in hydrogen transport, and advocating for U.S. merchant marine.
16:35 – Highlights LNG’s role in vessels, the need for a global fueling network, and defending LNG’s environmental impact.
19:52 – Sean Strawbridge discusses the size of container ships and the need for infrastructure development.
23:01 – Sean Strawbridge discusses evolving shipping alternatives, infrastructure needs, and responsible hydrocarbon production.
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– Get in Contact With The Show –
Stuart Turley [00:00:03] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast with my name, Stu Turley, President, CEO of the Sandstone Group. I’ve got an absolute huge treat today. I’ve got an old friend and I mean Sean Strawbridge is a energy hero. I met Sean when he was the CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi. He has turned that bad, Don, and had a great team there. As a manager, it is now up there in, I think, 2 or 3 in the world as a port. It’s energy security. But now Sean is off on a new adventure and he’s got a worldwide impact with this new one. His company is Voyager Energy Partners and he is a co founder, man, partner there. And I can’t wait to talk about global energy security, talking about how this new endeavor could impact the world. Sean, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope I got that right.
Sean Strawbridge [00:01:14] Hey, Stuart, thanks for the kind words and great to see you again.
Stuart Turley [00:01:18] Okay, so we’re off and running. We were chit chat and Sean right before the show and tell us a little bit about your new gig, because everybody knows if they know Sean Strawbridge, they know the Port of Corpus and everything that you did there, you made a huge advantage for the United States in energy security. But tell us about Voyager.
Stuart Turley: [00:00:16] Sean Strawbridge [00:00:18][2.1] [00:01:42] Well, Stuart, thanks for having me. It’s great to see you again. And thank you for those kind words. My time at the port of Corpus Christi was certainly one of the privileges of my career. And the port is now the third largest energy gateway in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia and Russia. So to have been a part of that epic growth was certainly gratifying for me. But, you know, eight years was a was a nice run, and I felt that there was still some opportunity in the market for me to perhaps try my hand in scratching my entrepreneurial itch. And so we I and some some bright minds in the industry have started a new venture called Voyager Energy Partners. And it is really focused on what I’m going to call water to water provisioning of American molecules, American energy molecules to our allies and our trading partners. You know, when you think about energy production in the United States, we have the large producers, the majors, of course, we have some independents, we have the midstream companies that transport those molecules from the well to the water. But then once they get to the water, they usually are in foreign ownership at that time in foreign control. And most of the large energy commodities trading houses are not American companies. And a lot of there’s a lot of reasons for that, including the tax climate that we have here in the United States. But I think with the dislocation that’s been created in the market as a result of the geopolitical environment that we find ourselves in, we believe that it is an opportunity for an American company to source American molecules and ensure that those molecules are getting into the right hands. That is our allies and our partners and folks in areas like the Asia Pacific region. And we’re talking countries, of course, our traditional allies like Japan and Korea. But we’ve got some new developing allies like Vietnam and and others that are in the neighborhood, if you will, of China, and have become that much more important of trading partners for the United States. We obviously have seen the dislocation that’s been created in Europe with Mr. Putin’s expansionist appetite and his invasion of Ukraine. Europe has never been more dependent on American energy in a post World War two era. So that to create opportunities. So we think that Voyager energy partners can really tap in to that need and ensure in working with our federal partners, working with elected officials to ensure that we do have good, solid public policy that is promoting the export, the production and the export of American oil and American gas in a clean, safe manner to our allies and our partners. And that’s what our thesis is behind Voyager Energy Partners.
Stuart Turley [00:04:48] I’ll tell you what, that is really cool because in my opinion, the we are now entering in a stage beyond that, the United States oil and gas is. More important now than it ever has been in in our previous time, because nothing in the strategic oil reserves, thanks to some administrative policies, our export dollars, LNG export becoming so important. But your customers, who are you going after around the world? In order to help facilitate this, you’re going to have your, I’m assuming this juniors of the world or those that are working, but who are your clients?
Sean Strawbridge [00:05:37] Well, Cheniere would actually we would view them as either a service provider and providing the liquefaction of natural gas in creating liquefied natural gas. We would actually have chartered a charter group. So we will be in control of the vessels that will load the LNG or the LPG or the crude oil. Whether that’s through charter or whether that’s through acquisition of those vessels from the shipyards and and our customers, It will be these large foreign owned oil and gas companies, large utilities, and in many cases they’re actually the national oil companies or the national utilities. Many, many countries around the world, those critical infrastructure companies, those those those energy companies, they’re nationalized. They have not been privatized. They’re still part of the sovereign governments of those those those countries. And so those two would be our allies. And I think it’s important that there is accountability, that we know when we’re negotiating trade agreements, that energy is top of mind when we’re negotiating trade agreements and that we’re being held that those countries that have entered into those trade agreements with the United States are being held accountable. And we would be one of those checks and balances that would be able to report back to the federal government in a meaningful way, the accountability that’s needed and necessary for these trade agreements.
Stuart Turley [00:07:09] As we look at the global market, because the global market for LNG and our molecules and I love the way you phrase that the molecules from the oil, American oil and gas, it is a complicated mix. As we take a look at that. This is not a lightweight job. This is not a lightweight company in order to get that done. What about I mean, I believe China and Qatar just signed a 27 year contract. This is a long term business. This is not something that you just, you know, put in place. Are you also looking at the short term and long term contracts?
Sean Strawbridge [00:07:50] Yeah, it’s a great question. So we certainly our ambition is to participate with long term offtake agreements with these customers. Energy security is needed and necessary for any sovereignty to have a viable economy as well as its national security. What we saw, though, during the pandemic is a lot of the long term contracts were declared in force majeure and there was very few sovereignties that kept intact their long term contracts. A lot of folks went to the spot markets. And remember, the crude market, the crude spot market in 2020 went into negative territory for the first time ever. Well, now what’s happened is a sovereignties like Japan and China, they they really maintained and even increased their long term offtake agreements, which left a real kind of musical chairs, if you will, left a lot of the smaller sovereignties having to participate in the spot markets. And the spot markets are have a higher volatility and certainly a higher degree of risk. Our goal long term is to have long term offtake agreements with these companies and to be able to provision them with long term vessel chartering. So they have that security and that surety that they will get the energy. Now, of course, there will be a portion of the market that will participate in the stock market and we certainly hope to participate in that as well. And to your point, this is absolutely big ball. This is this is major leagues and we’re certainly sober and eyes wide open about us being really a David and Goliath market. But we do think that today is there’s never been a better time in a post World War two era for American companies to really lead the charge when it comes to energy provisioning on the export markets to our allies and our partners.
Stuart Turley [00:09:44] Sean, I love the way you articulate that because it is important. Let me let me ask this geopolitical issue, because remember when Trump told Germany that if they don’t fix their natural gas, they’re going to be beholden to. Russia. All of the EU went to spot. They got rid of their long term contracts and that started a war. I mean, quite you know, countries go to war over energy with these long term contracts. I think if I understood your your company, I think that being nimble and being the David makes more sense right now because you’re going to be able to go change those quickly on on all those challenges and in those kind of things with the right contacts, John, I think you’re going to hit it out of the park. Does that make sense?
Sean Strawbridge [00:10:47] Well, we certainly hope so. And I remember vividly the exchange that President Trump had with the German delegation and. Frankly, the German delegation at that time was rather dismissive of President Trump’s message, and I fear that was more in the delivery and the profile of the messenger than it was the actual actual message, rather, which many, many folks make that mistake. That’s why we clearly saw with Putin’s invasion of Russia and with the Nord Stream pipeline disruption, we saw that the Germany certainly was caught somewhat flat footed, as was other Western European countries. And today, the United States is exporting 14, arguably 14 Bcf a day and growing. We’ve got more liquefaction facilities that are under construction right now than those that are actually in operation. So we believe that that number could double between now and 2030, somewhere around 27 to 30 Bcf a day of exports of LNG to our allies. So it’s certainly a growth market and one that is seeing significant capital investment both direct, both American investment and certainly foreign direct investment. You mentioned Qatar. The Qataris, along with Exxon, are building the Golden Pass facility there in the Sabine Nations waterway. So even the Qataris, given what’s going on in the Middle East, are looking to hedge their bets with their LNG franchise in and, you know, in what’s arguably a neighborhood that has certainly some disruptions going on right now and some unrest. I think at the end of the day, it’s really about diversification. And like any portfolio, you should have a diversified portfolio. And that’s why we believe that there is a role for American oil and American gas in energy in any sovereignty energy portfolio. And that’s really what we’re looking to tap into it for your energy partners.
Stuart Turley [00:13:04] So cool. Do you see the Asian market really kicking in so hugely? Because like you mentioned, Japan is now all in and on their nuclear and they are really ramping up things. So a huge market for you. I’m seeing that the LNG market in Asia is growing like you wouldn’t believe, so I could be wrong. But do you see that as a huge opportunity for you?
Sean Strawbridge [00:13:30] We certainly do, Stuart. You know, Japan’s been importing LNG for 50, 60, 70 or more years. So they’re very familiar with that with that energy source. And as they move away from coal fired power utilities, liquefied natural gas is certainly with a less than 50% carbon footprint of coal. It certainly fits into their portfolio as they continue to evolve into other energy sources, whether that’s renewables, whether that’s hydrogen, which we certainly have a keen eye on hydrogen and hydrogen production. And vessels are going to be needed and necessary to move whatever derivative of hydrogen. So if you’re moving vessels today with LNG, you can also move those same vessels with with other hydrogen derivatives as well. So, you know, these vessels are they’re expensive. They’re very capital intensive. You can use them for 20 plus years. So they do have a fairly long life. And and unfortunately, we don’t have them of any size built in the United States. They have to be sourced outside of the United States. And that’s an area that I am hopeful that at some point the federal government and members of Congress will recognize that we’ve got to rebuild our merchant Marine, our U.S. flag merchant mariner, mariner constituency, because it is a vulnerability that will exist if we are in any major conflict. But today, just the markets economically are such that it’s not economically viable to use a U.S. built U.S. flag tanker in a foreign market. So at the end of the day, we’ve got to look at still being competitive because folks are still going to be price sensitive. But we’re going to keep a keen eye on that. And we’re certainly going to be advocates for good public policy that support a growing US merchant fleet.
Stuart Turley [00:15:32] I’ll tell you, Sean, you just woke up a gigantic squirrel and it is a ugly baby giant squirrel with the Jones Act. And then you also have we have I believe it’s either 4 or 5 shipyards and two of them are military, I believe, and we have no capacity to build them. I mean, China just this week announced they’re starting their build on their first actual cargo carrier doing LNG as a fuel. And I see that as a huge plus for boom for exports for the U.S. market because of the ecological rules that went into effect for getting rid of tankers and cargo ships and everything else. There’s nothing but great things on the horizon for LNG and I just see the market continuing to grow for many, many years. Certainly. I mean.
Sean Strawbridge [00:16:35] It does and it’s certainly in surface transportation. The International Maritime Organization, which is the the the standards organization that establishes these types of of fuel standards that are adopted by 150 countries around the world. We had IMO 2020 that went into effect pretty successfully, which requires these vessels to switch from their heavy fuel oils. We call it bunker in our in our industry to switch from bunker fuels or a heavy fuel oil to a low sulfur diesel within a certain nautical miles of sovereign territory and an ultra low sulfur diesel, half a percent sulfur. The big question was, is it going to be the chicken or the egg? Is there going to be enough of that feedstock to be able to have these carriers switch over? And I commend the refining sector for meeting those requirements. We now have new set of standards for 2030 and LNG seems to be percolating to the top when it comes to using that as a feedstock for powering these large vessels. So there is going to be an increased prominence. The key is going to be it’s like anything you think about Tesla and the charging stations for a Tesla network, a charging network for Tesla, is there any EV for that matter? You’re going to have to have that same network of fueling capabilities throughout the world, and we just don’t have that today. So the prominence of LNG to be able to provision those fueling centers for these vessels as they convert again from heavy fuel oil, which has a much higher carbon content to LNG, which is less than half, less than half the CO2 emissions. You know, we talk about LNG has been unfairly vilified in. In certain circles. But when you look at, for example, here in the United States, we have reduced carbon emissions in the public utility space by over 50% in the last 15 years. And that wasn’t through regulation, as you know, Stuart. That was through innovation in extraction technologies with hydraulic fracturing and the abundance of natural gas. Over 200 years of proven reserves now in the United States. And now we have sub $3 Henry Hub that makes natural gas much more competitive than coal at a much lower carbon footprint. So, you know, if were somebody was to offer me the trade hey if you can reduce carbon atmospheric carbon emissions by 50% over the next ten years and still use a hydrocarbon, would you do that? You know, the answer is, of course, I’ll take that trade all day long.
Stuart Turley [00:19:22] Oh, absolutely. It’s the hung dong Zoo. Zoo. Boy, I my Oklahoma, Texas accent would butcher this name horribly. Hung Dong Zoo Guy is the construction series of the 23,000 t u LNG dual fuel container ship for French shipping giant CMA CGM at thing is huge and wow.
Sean Strawbridge [00:19:52] Yeah. And just to give your just to give your your audience some context of how big that ship is. You know, when I started in the industry in 1990, the largest container ships on the planet were 4400 to. Now they’re, as you say, 23,000, 24,000, even 25,000 to you. That’s enough to fill four major shopping malls, wall to wall, eight feet high with goods. It’s longer than the entire state. Building is tall. And if you’re familiar with the I-95 in south Florida or the 4 or 5 and in southern California, those ships are wider than those 12 lane highways. That’s how big these vessels are. So vessel technology has evolved much more rapidly than infrastructure has been able to keep pace. And that’s really what we’re focused on, is now ensuring that the infrastructure is in place to be able to handle these larger classification of vessels that are now having these dual fuel capabilities.
Stuart Turley [00:20:55] That is nuts. That’s huge. I thought it was big, but I didn’t realize it was that big. Being a ship guy that you got a port going on, you knew everything about that ship just by my horrible description. John That’s pretty darn cool. So, well.
Sean Strawbridge [00:21:14] I commend I commend CMA, CGM. I know they’re their CEO. Mr. Shady. I know one of his major shareholders, Mr. Yildirim. They’re a they’re the third largest shipping company in the world. Number two is Maersk, and number one is Mediterranean Shipping Company. And this is essentially what society wants. You know, they want to see this is what their customers want to see. And it’s the same thing across many industries. And that’s why having oil and gas provisioning in a safer, cleaner way is really going to if we’re going to achieve the atmospheric decarbonization goals that we want, we’re going to have to do it in a in a safer, cleaner way. But we’re also going to have to make sure that we’re thoughtful about the infrastructure that’s needed to be able to get there.
Stuart Turley [00:22:06] Or the infrastructure, because, you know, the the poor old Tesla Evie debacle that’s going on right now is I loved it when Secretary Graham tried to do an EV trip for like 3 or 4 days and they had a staffer get arrested because they held, you know, they, they parked in there and had a pregnant lady that they couldn’t do it. These are not working because of the charging stations. I mean, and there’s a lot of other things going on there, economics and everything else. How would we get the the if you would, the refueling stations for LNG? Would they be at every EFS? The floating import stations would also possibly be a filling station for these rascals. Is that that seems to me would be a really easier way to just tap into those things. Is that a fair statement?
Sean Strawbridge [00:23:01] Yeah, I think it is. I mean, it’s the same way when you look at distributing heavy fuel oil. It’s going to be the same distribution network, but you’ll see a repurposing of the land and a repurposing of the tanks to be able to handle LNG and and to do it in a cleaner, safer way. You know, there’s also talk about ammonia and vessels being powered by ammonia. I think that that the as we all want we all want a cleaner, greener environment. No question about it. I have 220 something year old sons who couldn’t be more political polar opposites. But the one thing they agree on is the environment. And they both feel that there’s a need to do more for the environment. But, you know, it’s it is an evolution. It’s not a revolution. And it’s when people are revolutionary that sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture of how important energy is. You know, when we talk about hydrocarbons, Stuart, you know, crude oil is used in less than half and less than half of crude oil that’s consumed globally is used in the mobility space. Less than half. More of it is less than half. More of it is consumed in the petrochemical space, which is therefore then used for manufacturing. And 95% of the things that we use in our daily lives that have helped us evolve as a species, whether that’s medicines or medical devices or technology, have hydrocarbons in them. But we have to do a better job of really evangelizing the importance of hydrocarbons and recognizing that it’s the consumption of hydrocarbons that is really the challenge, the impacts of the. Consumption of hydrocarbons. It’s not the hydrocarbon itself. It’s the consumption of the hydrocarbon. And as mankind’s appetite to consume continues to grow, we need to do more when it comes to reducing the impacts of consuming those hydrocarbons, because with the exception of nuclear. Oil and gas has the highest density of energy of any commodity out there. I mean much higher than obviously renewables. And so with that, that abundance of of dense energy that we have, let’s focus our our our efforts on reducing the impacts. And that’s where carbon capture and sequestration, for example, comes into play. I’m a huge fan of that and and look forward to and the energy industry is as well and that’s why you’re seeing tens of billions of dollars being invested by oil and gas companies in carbon capture and sequestration initiatives. And I think that that is absolutely where they need to be, where they need to be putting their dollars in addition to more exploration and more production. And I think the federal government needs to really not vilify them, but rather assist them in continuing to produce in a responsible, sustainable way while looking at reducing the impacts of the consumption.
Stuart Turley [00:26:12] All right. You’re an amazing man, and I don’t mean to give you a man hood there anything but you’re also on the. Is it Texas Coalition for Carbon or you were on was that was it the Coalition for Carbon or.
Sean Strawbridge [00:26:29] The Carbon Neutral Coalition?
Stuart Turley [00:26:31] Carbon neutral. Thank you. I tried to reach out to you and bug you there, but you were busy like digging ditches in in the channels and stuff. So but that is very, very important on that. And like Occidental has done a great job, you know, taking that that effort in and doing both oil and gas and carbon capture in taking a look at going down the road for both of those. Sean, we only have a few more minutes here on the podcast, but you would be a phenomenal podcast host because of your wide range of background and knowledge. I think you ought to be the next Dan Bongino of energy. So I think I’d love to come on your podcast if you ever got your own show. So.
Sean Strawbridge [00:27:21] Well, look, you do such a great job, Stuart. I’ll leave that to the experts, but I certainly appreciate what you stand for for our industry. It is a great industry. It’s one that we cannot live without. It’s an exciting time to be in the business. Certainly there are some disconcerting aspects when it comes to public policy and the rhetoric around the politicians these days in certain circles with the oil and gas constituency. But when you have great leaders like Mike Summers from API or Todd Staples from the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and you have great corporate leaders like Darren Woods at Exxon or Vicki Hollub at at Oxy, who have been very declarative about the importance of their industries while continuing to do more to reduce atmospheric carbon concentrations. It’s those types of leaders that that truly inspire me. And I’m a big fan of your podcast, so I’m just going to continue to be a big part of your audience. And I’m grateful that you invite me on from time to time.
Stuart Turley [00:28:34] Well, thank you, Sean, and I cannot wait to see you again. I’d love to have you as a regular victim on here. So again, thank you very much. And we’ll see you next time on the Energy News Beat podcast.
