Energy 2025: SABEL, MIKE

Sabel, a billionaire former investment banker, co-founded Venture Global in 2013 with finance lawyer Robert Pender, exporting U.S.-produced liquefied natural gas.

In January the company went public, and shares opened nearly 4% below its $25 IPO price, earning a valuation of $58.2 billion, and its stock fell to a low of $7 in April, although it has risen somewhat. Meanwhile, the company has been in arbitration with customers BP and Shell over its gas sales during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which saw prices soar.

Venture Global is set to build its third natural gas export facility in Louisiana, expected to make the company the largest exporter of domestic LNG. During the Biden administration, the plant’s fate was in limbo, but the Trump presidency has lent the company’s plans more stability.

A D.C. resident, Sabel was among a delegation of oil and natural gas executives who visited President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2024. Trump told the group they should donate $1 billion to his industry-friendly presidential campaign because he would undo environmental regulations, unfreeze LNG exports and auction off more Gulf of Mexico leases, The Washington Post reported. Venture Global contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

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