Tellurian Inc. is an American natural gas company headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 2016 by Charif Souki and Martin Houston. The company was acquired by Woodside Energy in 2024.
History
After Charif Souki, the founder and former CEO of large natural gas company Cheniere Energy, was fired from the company after a takeover by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, he founded Tellurian in 2016 with Martin Houston, the former COO of BG Group.[2] The board of Cheniere had expelled Souki over, in part, his plans to more ambitiously expand the company, plans that he brought to Tellurian, telling the Financial Times upon launch that he aimed to undercut its rivals, including Cheniere, by 15 to 20 percent. The company hired several former Cheniere executives, including Meg Gentle, Cheniere's former executive vice president of marketing.
On August 2, 2016, Tellurian entered into a merger agreement with petroleum company Magellan; other early investors included the French oil and gas company Total, which purchased a 23 percent stake in the company for $207 million in December 2016.