<\/p>\n
A barge moves along the water past Exxon and QatarEnergy’s new Golden Pass LNG facility in Port Arthur, Thursday, April 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Exxon and QatarEnergy’s new Golden Pass LNG facility is shown behind a house in Sabine Pass, Thursday, April 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Terry Fritz bought her light blue lakefront house more than two years ago, as the now-hulking liquefied natural gas facility took shape across the street<\/a>.<\/p>\n Golden Pass LNG, owned by QatarEnergy and Houston oil behemoth Exxon Mobil, started commercial production last week and expects to ship its first cargo in the coming months. The water that laps against it is the same that added real estate appeal to the line of neighboring pillar-raised homes and vacation rentals.<\/p>\n Fritz, 70, said she didn\u2019t mind Golden Pass. The gas processing and export facility<\/a> was relatively quiet, she said. Unlike the refineries down the road in Port Arthur, she couldn\u2019t smell the gas being piped in and, at night, the flares and lights made it look like she lived near a little city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThey do what they need to do,\u201d Fritz said of companies operating nearby, like Exxon. \u201cAnd if it keeps the gas lower than it is in California, then it\u2019s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n The facility\u2019s launch, under construction since 2019<\/a>, marks a critical moment for both the U.S. and global industry. It is the latest project along the Gulf Coast to come online and strengthen America\u2019s role as lead exporter<\/a> while natural gas markets elsewhere reel from the Iran war.<\/p>\n \u201cGolden Pass is hitting the market at the right time,\u201d said James West, head of energy and power at Melius Research.<\/p>\n INDUSTRY STANDARDS: Trump promised an energy boom in his second term. Texas shows who actually got one<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Demand for U.S. LNG has skyrocketed as a result of the war in Iran. An Iranian airstrike to a QatarEnergy LNG facility at the Ras Laffan industrial hub in Qatar in March knocked out as much as 17% of the country\u2019s current supply for the next five years, according to the company.<\/p>\n LNG is considered one of the cleanest fuel sources on the market. It is the supercooled liquid form of natural gas, which makes it easier to pipe into ships to send to gas-favoring markets in Europe and Asia.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. is the world\u2019s largest exporter of LNG<\/a>, and a favorite of the Trump administration, which restarted export permitting after a yearlong pause to the process during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n The war in Iran showed that U.S. LNG is safe from a vulnerable choke point \u2014 the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 that cargoes from Qatar LNG are not, West said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between the war, the artificial intelligence boom and the popular use of natural gas to power data centers, demand for LNG is primed to increase faster than demand for crude, he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n BOOM OR BUST: Oil prices surged past $100 this week. Why is Texas oil still on the sidelines?<\/a><\/p>\n Until the war, Qatar was producing around 20% of the world\u2019s LNG supply. It\u2019s left a hole that customers in Asia and Europe are hoping to fill elsewhere \u2013 like from the Gulf Coast\u2019s expanding industry.<\/p>\n Houston\u2019s Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco said his company and its facilities in Louisiana and Corpus Christi were trying to meet the demand influx.\u00a0<\/p>\n