HOUSTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. pipeline operator Energy

Transfer ( ET ) will not give its Lake Charles liquefied natural

gas export facility in Louisiana a financial go-ahead until 80%

of the project has been sold to equity partners, company

executives said on Wednesday on a post-earnings call.

Energy Transfer ( ET ) has been developing the 16.5 million metric

tons per annum LNG export facility and has sold most of the

expected production to long-term customers, but has faced rising

project costs and wants to share the risk with equity partners.

"Our projects need to meet certain risk-return criteria, and

we're not there yet on LNG," co-CEO Tom Long said.

"We are hoping that these equity partners will step up by

the end of the year and get us to where we want this kind of

risk profile, in the space we want this project," he added.

The company earlier this year signed a non-binding agreement

with MidOcean Energy to jointly develop the Lake Charles LNG

export facility.

MidOcean is expected to pay for 30% of the construction

costs of the facility and receive 30% of the LNG production, or

roughly 5 million tons a year.

POSITIONING FOR BOOMING POWER DEMAND

Energy Transfer ( ET ) is also looking to position itself to

further benefit from booming power demand from data centers,

mulling the conversion of one of its natural gas liquids

pipelines to natural gas.

Energy Transfer ( ET ) operates three pipelines moving natural gas

liquids (NGL) out of the Permian Basin, which straddles Texas

and New Mexico. Natural gas liquids such as ethane, butane and

propane are used to make plastics and chemicals as well as for

heating and cooking.

But moving natural gas rather than NGLs may offer

considerably better returns, executives said.

"Some of the scenarios show twice the revenue with natural

gas than what we might see with NGLs," said co-CEO Mackie

McCrea.

Domestic natural gas consumption will rise from a record

90.5 billion cubic feet per day in 2024 to 91.6 bcfd in 2025 and

2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its

latest Short-Term Energy Outlook.