A ship carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) is towed out of the Port of Rotterdam on January 13, 2025 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Pierre Crom | Getty Images
Natural gas exporter Venture Global opened below its IPO price in its first day of trading, as the company’s debut tests investor appetite for energy stocks with the Trump administration looking to implement a sweeping agenda aimed at boosting oil and gas production.
“The Trump administration has made very clear they support growing LNG exports,” Venture CEO Mike Sabel told CNBC in an interview Friday.
Venture shares opened 3.8% lower at $24.05 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company had priced its initial public offering of 70 million shares at $25 to raise $1.75 billion.
Shares were last trading 0.72% lower at $24.82, putting the company’s market capitalization around $60 billion. Venture is currently the second-largest LNG exporter in the U.S. behind Cheniere.
Venture had already steeply slashed its IPO price from its original target. The company had originally planned to offer 50 million shares in a range of $40 to $46, which would have raised about $2.2 billion at the midpoint for a total valuation of $110 billion.
Still, Venture’s IPO is the largest by an oil and gas company in a decade and the fourth-largest since 2000. At a valuation of around $60 billion, it would be the tenth-largest publicly traded energy company.
Venture is locked in arbitration with customers, including majors such as Shell, over contracted deliveries from its Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana.
President Donald Trump on Monday declared a national energy emergency and issued an executive order overturning the Biden administration’s pause on new LNG export projects, removing a potential obstacle to Venture’s growth.
Trump’s policies, combined with cold winter weather and expected robust demand from artificial intelligence, is helping to drive both natural gas prices and related stocks higher. Cheniere shares, for example, have climbed more than 20% since Trump was elected. Natural gas prices rose 44% over that same time.
Correction: Venture Global’s CEO is Mike Sabel. An earlier version of this story misspelled his name.
