EE Excelerate Energy Inc

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Investing in our Class A Common Stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following discussion of significant factors, events and uncertainties, together with the other information contained in this Form 10-K. The occurrence of any of the following risks, as well as any risks or uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently do not believe to be material, could materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operations and cash flow; in which case, the trading price of our Class A Common Stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risk Factors Summary

The following summarizes the principal factors that make an investment in the Company speculative or risky. This summary should be read in conjunction with the remainder of this “Risk Factors” section and should not be relied upon as an exhaustive summary of the material risks facing our business. The occurrence of any of these risks could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or growth prospects or cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements we have

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made in this report and those we may make from time to time. You should consider all of the risk factors described in our public filings when evaluating our business. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:

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Risks Related to Our Business

Our business relies on the performance by customers under current long-term contracts or contracts we will enter into in the future, and we could be materially and adversely affected if any customer fails to perform its contractual obligations for any reason, including nonpayment and nonperformance, or if we fail to enter into such contracts at all.

A significant amount of our revenue is generated currently from time charter contracts for FSRUs and terminal use agreements for LNG terminals with a small number of customers. Accordingly, our near-term ability to generate cash is dependent on our customers’ continued willingness and ability to continue purchasing our services and to perform their obligations under their respective contracts. Their obligations may include certain nomination or operational responsibilities, construction or maintenance of their own facilities which are necessary to enable us to deliver regasification services, or compliance with certain contractual representations and warranties in addition to payment of fees for use of our facilities. For more information regarding the material terms of the contracts with our customers, see “Business—Customers,” and for more information regarding the risks related to termination of the contracts with our customers, see “—Our contracts with our customers are subject to termination under certain circumstances,” immediately below.

Our credit procedures and policies may be inadequate to eliminate risks of nonpayment and nonperformance. In assessing customer credit risk, we use various procedures including background checks which we perform on our potential customers before we enter into a long-term contract with them. As part of the background check, we assess a potential customer’s credit profile and financial position, which can include their operating results, liquidity and outstanding debt, and certain macroeconomic factors regarding the region(s) in which they operate. These procedures help us to assess appropriately customer credit risk on a case-by-case basis, but these procedures may not be effective in assessing credit risk in all instances. As part of our business strategy, we intend to target customers who have not been traditional purchasers of regasified LNG, including customers in developing countries, and these customers may have greater credit risk than typical regasified LNG purchasers. Additionally, we may face difficulties in enforcing our contractual rights against contractual counterparties, including due to the cost and time involved in resolution of disputes by arbitration and litigation, difficulty in enforcing international arbitration awards particularly in situations where all or most of a counterparty’s assets are located in its home jurisdiction and involuntary submission to local courts notwithstanding contract clauses providing for international arbitration.

Our contracts with our customers are subject to termination under certain circumstances.

Our contracts with our customers contain various termination rights. For example, each of our long-term customer contracts contains various termination rights, including, without limitation:

Additionally, some customers may terminate their contracts in advance upon expiration of a specified time period and payment of associated early termination fees.

We may not be able to replace these contracts on desirable terms, or at all, if they are terminated prior to the end of their terms. Contracts that we enter into in the future may contain similar provisions. In addition, our customers may choose not to extend existing contracts. As a result, we may have an underutilized fleet and additionally, under charters for any FSRUs we do not own, we will still be obligated to make payments to their owners regardless of use. If any of our current or future contracts are terminated prior to the end of their terms, such termination could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flows, liquidity and prospects.

The operation of FSRUs and other LNG infrastructure assets is inherently risky, and an incident involving health, safety, property or environmental consequences involving any of our vessels could harm our reputation, business and financial condition.

Our vessels, the LNG and natural gas onboard and our other facilities and the LNG infrastructure to which we are interconnected are at risk of being damaged or lost because of events such as:

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An accident or incident involving any of our vessels or other facilities or the LNG infrastructure to which we are interconnected could result in any of the following:

Any of these results could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If our vessels or other facilities suffer damage, they may need to be repaired. The costs of vessel and other infrastructure repairs are unpredictable and can be substantial. We may have to pay repair costs that our insurance policies do not cover, for example, due to insufficient coverage amounts or the refusal by our insurance provider to pay a claim. The loss of earnings while these vessels or other facilities are being repaired, as well as the actual cost of these repairs not otherwise covered by insurance, would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Environmental, health and safety performance is critical to the success of all areas of our business. Any failure in environmental, health and safety performance may result in penalties for non-compliance with relevant regulatory requirements or litigation, and a failure that results in a significant environmental, health and safety incident is likely to be costly in terms of potential liabilities. Such a failure could generate public concern and negative media coverage and have a corresponding impact on our reputation and our relationships with relevant regulatory agencies and local communities, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.

We may experience operational problems with vessels or our other facilities that could reduce revenue, increase costs or lead to termination of our customer contracts.

FSRUs and LNG import terminals are complex and their operations are technically challenging. The operation of our FSRUs and LNG import terminals may be subject to mechanical risks. Operational problems may lead to loss of revenue or higher than anticipated operating expenses or require additional capital expenditures. Moreover, pursuant to each customer contract, our FSRUs or LNG terminals, as applicable, must maintain certain specified performance standards, which may include a guaranteed delivery of regasified LNG, consumption of no more than a specified amount of fuel or a requirement not to exceed a maximum average daily cargo boil-off. If we fail to maintain these standards, we may be liable to our customers for reduced hire, damages and certain liquidated damages payable under the charterer’s contract with its customer, and in certain circumstances, our customers may terminate their respective contracts with us. Any of these results could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may experience cancellations, time delays, unforeseen expenses and other complications while developing our projects. These complications can delay the commencement of revenue-generating activities, reduce the amount of revenue we earn and increase our development costs.

Development projects, including our regasification terminals and other downstream infrastructure, are often developed in multiple stages involving commercial and governmental negotiations, site planning, due diligence, permit requests, environmental impact studies, permit applications and review, marine logistics planning and transportation and end-user delivery logistics. These types of projects are subject to a number of risks that may lead to delay, increased costs and decreased economic attractiveness. These risks are often increased in foreign jurisdictions, where legal processes, language differences, cultural expectations, currency exchange requirements, political relations with the U.S. government, changes in administrations, new regulations, regulatory reviews, employment laws and diligence requirements can make it more difficult, time-consuming and expensive to develop a project.

A primary focus of our business is the development of projects in foreign jurisdictions, including in jurisdictions where we may not have significant experience, and we expect to continue expanding into new jurisdictions in the future. Our inexperience in certain jurisdictions creates a meaningful risk that we may experience delays, unforeseen expenses or other obstacles that will cause the projects we are developing to take longer and be more expensive than our initial estimates.

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While we plan our projects carefully and attempt to complete them according to timelines and budgets that we believe are feasible, we have experienced time delays and cost overruns in certain projects that we have developed previously and may experience similar issues with future projects given the inherent complexity and unpredictability of developing infrastructure projects. As a result of any one of these factors, any significant development delay, whatever the cause, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, cash flows and liquidity.

When we invest significant capital to develop a project, we are subject to the risk that the project is not successfully developed and that our customers do not fulfill their payment obligations to us following our capital investment in a project.

A key part of our business strategy is to attract new customers. This strategy requires us to invest capital and time to develop a project in exchange for the ability to sell natural gas, LNG and/or power and generate fees from customers in the future. When we develop large scale projects, our required capital expenditure may be significant, and we typically do not generate meaningful revenues from customers until the project has commenced commercial operations, which may take a year or more to achieve. If the project is not successfully developed for any reason, we face the risk of not recovering some or all of our invested capital, which may be significant. If the project is successfully developed, we face the risks that our customers may not fulfill their payment obligations or may not fulfill other performance obligations that impact our ability to collect payment. Our customer contracts and development agreements do not fully protect us against this risk and, in some instances, may not provide any meaningful protection from this risk. This risk is heightened in foreign jurisdictions, particularly if our counterparty is a government or government-related entity because any attempt to enforce our contractual or other rights may involve long and costly arbitration or litigation where the ultimate outcome is uncertain.

If we invest capital in a project where we do not receive the payments we expect, we will have less capital to invest in other projects, our liquidity, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected, and we could face the inability to comply with the terms of our existing debt or other agreements, which would exacerbate these adverse effects.

We have not yet completed contracting, construction and commissioning of certain of our planned regasification terminals and other facilities, including natural gas pipelines and power plants. There can be no assurance that our regasification terminals and other facilities will operate as expected, or at all.

We have not yet entered into binding construction contracts, received a “final notice to proceed” or obtained all necessary environmental, regulatory, construction and zoning permissions for all of our planned regasification terminals and other facilities. There can be no assurance that we will be able to enter into the contracts required for the development of these regasification terminals and other facilities on commercially favorable terms, if at all, or that we will be able to obtain all of the environmental, regulatory, construction and zoning permissions we need. In particular, we will require approval from local authorities where our regasification terminals and other facilities necessary for the delivery of natural gas, LNG or power to our customers will be located. If we are unable to enter into favorable contracts or to obtain the necessary regulatory and land use approvals on favorable terms, we may not be able to construct and operate these assets as expected, or at all. Additionally, the construction of these kinds of facilities is inherently subject to the risks of cost overruns and delays. There can be no assurance that we will not need to make adjustments to our regasification terminals and other facilities as a result of the required testing or commissioning of each project, which could cause delays and be costly. If we are unable to construct, commission and operate all of our regasification terminals and other facilities as expected, or, when and if constructed, they do not accomplish our goals, or if we experience delays or cost overruns in construction, our business, operating results, cash flows and liquidity could be materially and adversely affected. We may also decide to delay, postpone or discontinue a project in order to prioritize a different project than we originally planned. Expenses related to our pursuit of contracts and regulatory approvals related to our regasification terminals and other facilities still under development may be significant and will be incurred by us regardless of whether these assets are ultimately constructed and operational.

We must make substantial expenditures to maintain and replace, over the long-term, the operating capacity of our fleet, regasification terminals and associated assets, pipelines and downstream infrastructure, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We must make substantial expenditures and investments to maintain and replace, over the long-term, the operating capacity of our fleet, pipelines, regasification terminals and associated assets, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Repairs, maintenance and replacement capital expenditures include expenditures associated with drydocking a vessel, modifying an existing vessel or regasification terminal, acquiring a new vessel, regasification terminal or downstream infrastructure or otherwise repairing or replacing current vessels, regasification terminals and associated assets or downstream infrastructure, at the end of their useful lives. These expenditures could vary significantly from quarter to quarter and could increase as a result of changes in:

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We expect to be dependent on our EPC contractors and other contractors for the successful completion of our energy-related infrastructure.

Timely and cost-effective completion of our energy-related infrastructure, including our planned regasification terminals and other infrastructure, as well as future projects, in compliance with agreed specifications is central to our business strategy and is highly dependent on the performance of our primary EPC contractor and our other contractors under our agreements with them. The ability of our primary EPC contractor and our other contractors to perform successfully under their agreements with us is dependent on a number of factors, including their ability to:

Until and unless we have entered into an EPC contract for a particular project in which the EPC contractor agrees to meet our planned schedule and projected total costs for a project, we are subject to potential fluctuations in construction costs and other related project costs. Although some agreements may provide for liquidated damages if the contractor fails to perform in the manner required with respect to certain of its obligations, the events that trigger a requirement to pay liquidated damages may delay or impair the operation of the applicable facility, and any liquidated damages that we receive may be delayed or insufficient to cover the damages that we suffer as a result of any such delay or impairment.

We expect the obligations of our future EPC contractors and our other contractors to pay liquidated damages under their agreements with us to be subject to caps on liability. Furthermore, we may have disagreements with our contractors about different elements of the construction process, which could lead to the assertion of rights and remedies under their contracts and increase the cost of the applicable facility or result in a contractor’s unwillingness to perform further work. We may hire contractors to perform work in jurisdictions where they do not have previous experience, or contractors we have not previously hired to perform work in jurisdictions where we are beginning to develop projects, which may lead to such contractors being unable to perform according to their respective agreements. If any contractor is unable or unwilling to perform according to the negotiated terms and timetable of its respective agreement for any reason or terminates its agreement for any reason, we would be required to engage a substitute contractor, which could be particularly difficult in certain of the markets in which we plan to operate. This would likely result in significant project delays and increased costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.

In addition, if our future contractors are unable or unwilling to perform according to their respective agreements with us, our projects may be delayed and we may face contractual consequences in our agreements with our customers, including for development services, the supply of natural gas or LNG and the supply of power. We may be required to pay liquidated damages, face increased expenses or reduced revenue, and may face issues complying with certain covenants in such customer contracts or in our financings. Our contracts may not provide for our contractors to compensate us fully for such payments and other consequences.

A shortage of qualified officers and crew could have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

FSRUs and LNGCs require technically skilled officers and crews with specialized training. As the worldwide FSRU and LNGC fleet has grown, the demand for technically skilled officers and crews has increased, which could lead to a shortage of such personnel. A material decrease in the supply of technically skilled officers and crew, including as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war and government responses thereto, or our inability or that of our vessel managers to attract and retain such qualified officers and crew could impair our ability to operate or increase the cost of crewing our vessels, which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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In addition, we operate in certain countries, including Argentina and Brazil, that require us to hire a certain percentage of local personnel to crew the vessels, and we may expand our operations to countries with similar requirements. Any inability to attract and retain qualified local crew members could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We perform development services from time to time, which are subject to a variety of risks unique to these activities.

From time to time, we may agree to provide development or construction services as part of our customer contracts and such services are subject to a variety of risks unique to these activities. If construction costs of a project exceed original estimates, such costs may have to be absorbed by us, thereby making the project less profitable than originally estimated, or possibly not profitable at all. In addition, a construction project may be delayed due to government or regulatory approvals, supply shortages, or other events and circumstances beyond our control, or the time required to complete a construction project may be greater than originally anticipated.

We rely on third-party subcontractors and equipment manufacturers to complete many of our projects. To the extent that we cannot engage subcontractors or acquire equipment or materials in the amounts and at the costs originally estimated, our ability to complete a project in a timely fashion or at a profit may be impaired. If the amount we are required to pay for these goods and services exceeds the amount we have estimated in bidding for fixed-price contracts, we could experience losses in the performance of these contracts. In addition, if a subcontractor or a manufacturer is unable to deliver its services, equipment or materials according to the negotiated terms for any reason including, but not limited to, the deterioration of its financial condition, we may be required to purchase the services, equipment or materials from another source at a higher price. This may reduce the profit we expect to realize or result in a loss on a project for which the services, equipment or materials were needed.

If any such excess costs or project delays were to be material, such events may adversely affect our cash flow and liquidity.

Failure to obtain and maintain approvals and permits from governmental and regulatory agencies with respect to the design, construction and operation of our facilities and provision of our services, including the import of LNG and sale of gas, could impede project development and operations and construction and could have a material adverse effect on us.

The design, construction and operation of LNG terminals, natural gas pipelines, power plants and other facilities, and the import of LNG and the sale and transportation of natural gas, are regulated activities. We will be required to obtain permits and licenses according to local regulatory authorities with respect to any new construction, expansion or modification of our facilities, and maintain or renew current permits and licenses on the same terms as our existing facilities. We cannot control the outcome of the regulatory review and approval processes. Certain of these governmental permits, approvals and authorizations are or may be subject to rehearing requests, appeals and other challenges.

There is no assurance that we will obtain and maintain or renew these governmental permits, approvals and authorizations, or that we will be able to obtain them on a timely basis, and failure to obtain and maintain any of these permits, approvals or authorizations could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.

Our future growth depends upon our ability to maintain relationships with our customers and existing suppliers, source new suppliers for LNG and critical components of our projects and complete building out our supply chain, while effectively managing the risks arising from such relationships.

Our success will be dependent upon our ability to enter into or renew contracts with our customers for regasification services and gas supply agreements (“GSAs”) now and in the future and supply agreements with suppliers of LNG and critical components for our projects, as well as to maintain our relationships or form new relationships with customers, LNG suppliers or suppliers who are critical and necessary to our business and the development of energy-related infrastructure projects. During the years 2022 and 2021, we had three customers that, at times, accounted for over 10% of our revenues. Our dependence on a small number of customers means that a loss of, or other adverse actions by, any one of these customers would reduce our revenues and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. We also rely on a group of suppliers to provide us with certain goods and services for our projects. The supply agreements we have or may enter into with key suppliers in the future may have provisions where purchase volume over time is fixed or such agreements can be terminated in various circumstances, including potentially without cause, or may not provide for access to supplies in accordance with our timeline or budget. If these suppliers become unable to provide, experience delays in providing or impose significant increases in the cost of LNG or critical components for our projects, or if the supply agreements we have in place are terminated, it may be difficult to find replacement supplies of LNG and critical components for our projects on similar terms or at all. Changes in business conditions, pandemics, governmental changes and other factors beyond our control or that we do not presently anticipate could affect our ability to receive LNG and critical components from our suppliers.

Disruptions to the third-party supply of natural gas to our pipelines and facilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.

For some of our proposed development projects, we will depend upon third-party pipelines, power plants and other facilities that provide gas receipt and delivery downstream of our integrated terminals. If the construction of new or modified pipeline connections,

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power plants or other facilities is not completed on schedule or any pipeline connection, power plant or other facility were to become unavailable for current or future volumes of natural gas due to repairs, damage to the facility, lack of capacity or any other reason, our ability to meet our obligations and continue shipping natural gas from our terminals to end markets could be restricted, thereby reducing our revenues which could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.

We may not be able to balance our purchases of LNG with our delivery obligations and entry into long-term supply agreements for the purchase of LNG will expose us to increased commodity price risk and possible oversupply of LNG.

Under GSAs and LNG supply obligations with current and future customers, we are or will be required to deliver to our customers specified amounts of LNG and/or regasified LNG at specified times and within certain specifications, which requires us to obtain sufficient amounts of LNG. To satisfy these obligations, we have entered into a mix of short- and long-term LNG purchase agreements. In February 2023, we entered into a long-term LNG purchase agreement with a term of 20 years, which is expected to commence in 2027. This long-term LNG purchase agreement requires us to purchase 0.7 MT per annum of LNG, subject to our ability to cancel deliveries for a fee, and if those purchases and subsequent sales of LNG and/or regasified LNG to customers are not balanced, we will face increased exposure to commodity price risks and could have increased volatility in our operating income. Conversely, if our customers purchase more regasified LNG than we expect, our long-term supplier fails to deliver contracted LNG volumes or we are not able to supplement our supply with addition short-term purchase agreements, we may not be able to receive physical delivery of sufficient quantities of LNG to satisfy our delivery obligations, which may provide customers with the right to terminate their respective contracts with us and/or to seek damages. In addition, our commitment to purchase LNG is based on market-area indices, including Henry Hub pricing for our long-term LNG purchase agreement, and if we sell regasified LNG into market areas based on other market-area indices we may be exposed to the differences in the values of the respective indices. Changes in the index prices relative to each other, also referred to as basis spread, can significantly affect our margins or even result in losses, and LNG price fluctuations may make it expensive or uneconomic for us to acquire short-term supply to meet our gas delivery obligations under our GSAs. Higher LNG prices could enhance the risk of nonpayment by customers who are not able to pass the higher costs to their customers.

We may be dependent on third-party LNG suppliers and shippers and other tankers and facilities to provide delivery to and from our FSRUs. If LNG were to become unavailable due to repairs or damage to supplier facilities or tankers, lack of capacity, impediments to international shipping, LNG market disruptions, bankruptcies of our suppliers and shippers or any other reason, our ability to continue delivering regasified LNG to end-users could be restricted, thereby reducing our revenues and/or providing customers with termination rights and/or damages under their GSAs. Additional risks to the physical delivery of LNG include natural disasters, mechanical failures, grounding, fire, explosions and collisions, piracy, human error and war, sanctions and terrorism. For example, our purchases of LNG under our long-term purchase agreement will be FOB, but our sales to customers may be as Delivery Ex Ship or as regasified LNG, exposing us to the foregoing shipping and regasification risks. Because the factors affecting the supply and demand of LNG are outside of our control and are unpredictable, the nature, timing, direction and degree of changes in industry conditions are also unpredictable.

In addition, initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other future legislation and regulations, such as those relating to the transportation and security of LNG, or increased use of other energy sources such as solar and wind, could affect the long-term demand for LNG or regasified LNG. Our long-term LNG purchase agreement has a term of 20 years, pursuant to which we are committed to purchase certain volumes regardless of the demand for LNG or regasified LNG. A reduction in demand could materially adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

Cyclical or other changes in the demand for and price of LNG and natural gas and LNG regasification capacity may adversely affect our business and the performance of our customers and could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flows, liquidity and prospects.

Our business and the development of energy-related infrastructure and projects generally is based on assumptions about the future availability and price of natural gas and LNG and the prospects for international and domestic natural gas and LNG markets. Natural gas and LNG prices and demand for and price of LNG regasification capacity have at various times been and may become volatile due to one or more of the following factors:

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Adverse trends or developments affecting any of these factors, including the timing of the impact of these factors in relation to our purchases and sales of natural gas and LNG, could result in increases in prices for natural gas or LNG or result in a mark-to-market of the value of our LNG inventory, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flows, liquidity and prospects.

The market for LNG regasification services is competitive, and we may not be able to compete successfully, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The market for LNG regasification services in which we operate is competitive, especially with respect to the securing of long-term contracts. New competitors could enter the market for FSRUs and operate larger fleets through consolidations, acquisitions or the purchase of new vessels and may be able to offer lower rates and more modern fleets. Competition may also prevent us from achieving our goal of profitably expanding into other parts of the natural gas value chain.

We typically enter into long-term, fixed-rate regasification contracts with our customers, either in the form of time charters or terminal use agreements. The process of securing new long-term regasification contracts is highly competitive and generally involves an intensive screening process and competitive bids, often lasting for several months. Regasification contracts are awarded based upon a variety of factors relating to the vessel operator, including, but not limited to:

We expect substantial competition for providing flexible storage and regasification services for LNG import projects from a number of experienced companies, including state-sponsored entities and major energy companies. We anticipate that an increasing number of marine transportation companies, including many with strong reputations and extensive resources and experience, will enter the FSRU market and LNG transportation market. This increased competition may cause greater price competition for LNG regasification contracts. As a result of these factors, we may be unable to expand our relationships with existing customers or obtain new customers on a profitable basis, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Hire rates for FSRUs may fluctuate substantially, and lower rates could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Hire rates for FSRUs fluctuate over time as a result of changes in the supply-demand balance relating to current and future vessel supply. This supply-demand relationship largely depends on a number of factors outside our control. For example, driven in part by an

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increase in LNG production capacity, the market supply of FSRUs has been increasing as a result of the construction of new vessels before LNG import projects have matured to the point of entering into regasification contracts. Previously, the increase in supply has resulted in increased competition for these contracts, resulting in lower FSRU prices for recent contracts awarded. The Russia-Ukraine war, however, has caused FSRU contract prices to increase as European customers look to displace Russian gas and ensure their energy security. The LNG market is also closely connected to worldwide natural gas prices and energy markets, which we cannot predict. An extended decline in natural gas prices that leads to reduced investment in new liquefaction facilities could adversely affect our ability to re-charter our vessels at acceptable rates or to acquire and profitably operate new FSRUs. Similarly, an increase in natural gas prices could cause our potential customers, particularly in emerging markets, to be unable to afford LNG, reducing the demand for FSRUs. Accordingly, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our operations may be impacted by, and growth of our business may be limited by, many factors, including infrastructure constraints and community and political group resistance to existing and new LNG and natural gas infrastructure over concerns about the environment, safety and terrorism.

The number of existing LNG import terminal projects is limited, and new or expanded LNG import terminal projects are highly complex and capital intensive. Many factors could negatively affect continued development of LNG-related infrastructure, including floating storage and regasification, or disrupt the supply of LNG, including:

We expect that, in the event any of the factors discussed above negatively affect us, we may abandon some of our plans to expand existing or develop new LNG regasification terminals and other downstream infrastructure or these plans may be significantly delayed. If the LNG supply chain is disrupted or does not continue to grow, or if a significant explosion, spill or similar incident occurs within the LNG transportation, storage and regasification industry, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to implement our business strategy may be materially and adversely affected by many known and unknown factors.

Our business strategy relies upon a variety of factors, including our future ability to successfully market regasified LNG to end-users, develop and maintain cost-effective logistics in our supply chain and construct, develop and operate energy-related infrastructure in the United States, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Europe, Pakistan, the UAE and countries where we do not currently operate. Our strategy assumes that we will be able to expand our operations into other countries, enter into long-term GSAs or power purchase agreements with end-users, acquire and transport LNG at attractive prices, develop infrastructure, as well as other future projects, into efficient and profitable operations in a timely and cost-effective way, obtain approvals from all relevant federal, state and local authorities, as needed, for the construction and operation of these projects and other relevant approvals and obtain long-term capital appreciation and liquidity with respect to such investments. We cannot assure you if or when we will enter into contracts for the sale of regasified LNG, the price at which we will be able to sell such regasified LNG or our costs of procuring LNG. Thus, there can be no assurance that we will achieve our target pricing, costs or margins. Our strategy may also be affected by future governmental laws and regulations. Our strategy also assumes that we will be able to enter into strategic relationships with gas customers, energy end-users, power utilities, LNG providers, shipping companies, infrastructure developers, financing counterparties and other partners. These assumptions are subject to significant economic, competitive, regulatory and operational uncertainties, contingencies and risks, many of which are beyond our control. Additionally, in furtherance of our business strategy, we may acquire operating businesses or other assets in the future. Any such acquisitions would be subject to significant risks and contingencies, including the risk of integration, and we may not be able to realize the benefits of any such acquisitions.

Our strategy may evolve over time, and our ability to execute our business strategy is uncertain. It can be expected that one or more of our assumptions will prove to be incorrect and that we will face unanticipated events and circumstances that may adversely affect our business. Any one or more of the following factors may have a material adverse effect on our ability to implement our strategy and achieve our targets:

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If we experience any of these failures, such failure may adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and ability to execute our business strategy.

We may be subject to litigation, arbitration or other claims which could materially and adversely affect us.

We may in the future be subject to litigation and enforcement actions, such as claims relating to our operations, securities offerings and otherwise in the ordinary course of business. Some of these claims may result in significant defense costs and potentially significant judgments against us, some of which are not, or cannot be, insured against. In the event of any litigation or enforcement action, we would establish warranty, claim or litigation reserves that we believe are adequate; we cannot be certain, however, of the ultimate outcomes of any claims that may arise in the future, and legal proceedings may result in the award of substantial damages against us beyond our reserves. Resolution of these types of matters against us may result in our having to pay significant fines, judgments or settlements, which, if uninsured or in excess of insured levels, could adversely impact our earnings and cash flows, thereby materially and adversely affecting us. Furthermore, plaintiffs may in certain of these legal proceedings seek class action status with potential class sizes that vary from case to case. Class action lawsuits can be costly to defend, and if we were to lose any certified class action suit, it could result in substantial liability for us. Certain litigation or the resolution thereof may affect the availability or cost of some of our insurance coverage, which could materially and adversely impact us, expose us to increased risks that would be uninsured, and materially and adversely impact our ability to attract directors and officers.

If our trademarks, service marks and trade names are not adequately protected, we may not be able to build or maintain name recognition in our markets of interest, and our competitive position may be harmed.

The registered or unregistered trademarks, service marks or trade names (collectively, “trademarks”) that we own may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic or descriptive, lapsed or determined to be infringing on or dilutive of other marks. During trademark registration proceedings, we may receive rejections of our applications by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), or comparable agencies in other foreign jurisdictions. Although we are given an opportunity to respond to such rejections, we may be unable to overcome them. In addition, in the USPTO and in comparable agencies in many foreign jurisdictions, third parties are given an opportunity to oppose pending trademark applications and to seek to cancel registered trademarks. Opposition or cancellation proceedings may be filed against our trademarks, which may not survive such proceedings. Furthermore, owning and maintaining a trademark registration may not provide an adequate defense against a subsequent infringement claim asserted by the owner of a senior trademark. We may not be able to protect our rights in these trademarks, which we need in order to build name recognition with potential customers. In addition, third parties may file for registration of trademarks similar or identical to our trademarks, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion and loss of goodwill. If they succeed in registering or developing common-law rights in such trademarks, and if we are not successful in challenging such third-party rights, we may not be able to use these trademarks to develop brand recognition of our technologies, products or services. In addition, there could be potential trademark infringement or unfair competition claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks, we may not be able to compete effectively, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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If we cannot obtain, maintain, protect or enforce the intellectual property rights on which our business depends, or if third parties assert that we violate their intellectual property rights, our business, prospects, financial condition, results of operations, cash flow and liquidity may be adversely impacted.

We rely upon patent and trademark laws in the United States and similar laws in other countries, and non-disclosure, confidentiality and other types of agreements with our employees, customers, suppliers and other parties, to establish, maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights. Such means may afford only limited protection of our intellectual property and may not (i) prevent our competitors from duplicating our processes or technology; (ii) prevent our competitors from gaining access to our proprietary information and technology; or (iii) permit us to gain or maintain a competitive advantage. Various factors outside our control pose a threat to our intellectual property rights, as well as to our products, services and technologies. For example, we may fail to obtain effective intellectual property protection, or the efforts we have taken to protect our intellectual property rights may not be sufficient or effective, and any of our intellectual property rights may be challenged, which could result in them being narrowed in scope or declared invalid or unenforceable. Even if we are to obtain issuance of further patents or registration of other intellectual property, such intellectual property could be subjected to attacks on ownership, validity, enforceability, or other legal attacks.

Further, the laws of certain countries, including countries where we have not applied for patent protection or trademark or other intellectual property registration, may not be as protective of intellectual property and proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property and proprietary rights may be inadequate. Therefore, in certain jurisdictions, we may be unable to protect our proprietary technology adequately against unauthorized third party copying, infringement or use, which could adversely affect our competitive position. Filing, prosecuting, maintaining, and defending our intellectual property in all countries throughout the world may be prohibitively expensive, and we may choose to forgo such activities in some applicable jurisdictions. The lack of adequate legal protections of intellectual property or failure of legal remedies or related actions in jurisdictions outside of the United States or failure to obtain sufficient intellectual property protection could impede our ability to market our products, negatively affect our competitive position and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

To prevent substantial unauthorized use of our intellectual property and proprietary rights, it may be necessary to prosecute actions for infringement, misappropriation or other violation of our intellectual property and proprietary rights against third parties. Any enforcement of our intellectual property may provoke third parties to assert counterclaims against us. Furthermore, claims of intellectual property infringement also might require us to redesign affected products or services, enter into costly settlement or license agreements or pay costly damage awards, or face a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from marketing or selling certain of our products or services.

Claims by third parties that we infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate their proprietary technology or other intellectual property rights could harm our business. Our competitors and other third parties hold numerous trademarks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights related to technology used in our industry and may hold or obtain trademarks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights that could prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop, sell or market our products and services, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to develop our business without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property or proprietary rights of others. From time to time, we may be subject to claims of infringement, misappropriation, or other violation of patents or other intellectual property rights and related litigation, and if we gain greater recognition in the market, we face a higher risk of being the subject of these types of claims. In addition, if we are found to infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate any third-party intellectual property, we may be required to obtain a license to such third-party intellectual property, pay substantial damages, ongoing royalty or license payments, fees, cease offering our product offering or using certain technologies, require us to redesign affected products, enter into costly settlement or license agreements or pay costly damage awards, or face a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from marketing or selling certain of our products or comply with other unfavorable terms. Furthermore, we could be found liable for treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent or other intellectual property right. If we are required to obtain a license from any third party, such license may not be available at all or on commercially reasonable terms. Litigation, whether we are a plaintiff or a defendant, can be expensive and time consuming and may divert the efforts of our management and other personnel, which could harm our business, whether or not such litigation results in a determination favorable to us. Litigation also puts our patents or other intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications or applications for other intellectual property registrations at risk of not issuing. Additionally, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during any intellectual property-related litigation. Any of the foregoing could cause potential customers to refrain from purchasing our solutions or services or otherwise cause us reputational harm and result in substantial costs, negative publicity and diversion of resources and management attention, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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Our insurance may be insufficient to cover losses that may occur to our property or result from our operations.

Our current operations and future projects are subject to the inherent risks associated with LNG, natural gas and power and maritime operations and other risks, including shipping and transportation of hazardous substances, explosions, pollution, release of toxic substances, fires, seismic events, hurricanes and other adverse weather conditions, acts of aggression or terrorism and other hazards, each of which could result in significant delays in commencement or interruptions of operations or result in damage to or destruction of our facilities and assets or damage to persons and property. Some of the regions in which we operate are affected by hurricanes or tropical storms. We do not, nor do we intend to, maintain insurance against all of these risks and losses, and the business interruption insurance that we do carry may not be adequate to pay for the full extent of loss from a covered incident. In particular, we do not carry business interruption insurance for hurricanes and other natural disasters. Therefore, the occurrence of one or more significant events not fully insured or indemnified against could create significant liabilities and losses or delays which could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, cash flow, liquidity and prospects.

We may be unable to procure adequate insurance coverage at commercially reasonable rates in the future. For example, environmental regulations have led in the past to increased costs for, and in the future may result in the lack of availability of, insurance against risks of environmental damage or pollution. A significant release of natural gas, marine disasters or natural disasters could result in losses that exceed our insurance coverage, which could harm our business, financial condition and operating results. Any uninsured or underinsured loss could harm our business and financial condition. In addition, our insurance may be voidable by the insurers as a result of certain of our actions.

We intend to operate in jurisdictions that have experienced and may in the future experience significant political volatility. Our projects and developments could be negatively impacted by political disruption including risks of delays to our development timelines and delays related to regime change in the jurisdictions in which we intend to operate. We maintain industry-standard war risk insurance, but we do not carry political risk insurance currently. If we choose to carry political risk insurance in the future, it may not be adequate to protect us from loss, which may include losses as a result of project delays or losses as a result of business interruption related to a political disruption. Any attempt to recover from loss from political disruption may be time-consuming and expensive, and the outcome may be uncertain.

Changes in the insurance markets attributable to terrorist attacks or political change may also make certain types of insurance more difficult for us to obtain. In addition, the insurance that may be available may be significantly more expensive than our existing coverage.

Changes in accounting rules, assumptions and/or judgments could materially and adversely affect us.

Accounting rules and interpretations for certain aspects of our financial reporting are highly complex and involve significant assumptions and judgment. These complexities could lead to a delay in the preparation and dissemination of our financial statements. Furthermore, changes in accounting rules and interpretations or in our accounting assumptions and/or judgments, such as those related to asset impairments, could significantly impact our financial statements. In some cases, we could be required to apply a new or revised standard retroactively, resulting in restating prior period financial statements. Any of these circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Our operations, including joint ventures, outside of the United States are subject to the risks normally associated with any conduct of business in foreign countries, including varying degrees of political, legal and economic risk.

Our operations, including joint ventures, outside of the United States are subject to the risks normally associated with any conduct of business in foreign countries including:

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Threats or instability in a country caused by political events, including elections, change in government, changes in personnel or legislative bodies, military control, civil disturbances, foreign relations or the imposition of sanctions, present serious political and social risk and instability causing interruptions to the flow of business negotiations and influencing relationships with government officials. The risks include increased “unpaid” state participation, higher taxation levels and potential expropriation. Other risks include the potential for fraud and corruption by suppliers or personnel or government officials which may implicate us, compliance with applicable anti-corruption laws by virtue of our operating in jurisdictions that may be vulnerable to the possibility of bribery, collusion, kickbacks, theft, improper commissions, facilitation payments, conflicts of interest and related party transactions and our possible failure to identify, manage and mitigate instances of fraud, corruption or violations of our code of conduct and applicable regulatory requirements. Changes in policy or law may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

These risks may limit or disrupt our joint ventures, strategic alliances or investments, restrict the movement of funds, cause us to have to expend more funds than previously expected or required or result in the deprivation of contract rights or the taking of property by nationalization or expropriation without fair compensation, and may materially adversely affect our businesses, financial position or results of operations. In addition, the enforcement by us of our legal rights in foreign countries, including rights to exploit our properties or utilize our permits and licenses and contractual rights may not be recognized by the court systems in such foreign countries or enforced in accordance with the rule of law.

We operate, invest in companies or engage in joint ventures in countries with developing economies and in areas of the world where there are heightened political and security risks. It is difficult to predict the future political, social and economic direction of the countries in which we operate, and the impact government decisions may have on our business. Any political or economic instability in the countries in which we operate could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

An increase in the frequency and severity of weather events, including as a result of global climate change, could have a material adverse effect on the economies in the markets in which we operate or plan to operate and could result in an interruption of our operations, possibly leading to a termination right for customers under our contracts, a delay in the completion of our infrastructure projects or higher construction, repair and maintenance costs, all of which could adversely affect us.

Over the past several years, changing weather patterns and climatic conditions, such as global warming, have added to the unpredictability and frequency of natural disasters in certain parts of the world, including the markets in which we operate and intend to operate, and have created additional uncertainty as to future trends. There is a growing consensus today that climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather events and, in recent years, the frequency of major weather events appears to have increased. We cannot predict whether or to what extent damage that may be caused by natural events, such as severe tropical storms, hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons will affect our operations or the economies in our current or future market areas, but the increased frequency and severity of such weather events could increase the negative impacts to economic conditions in these regions and result in a decline in the value or the destruction of regasification terminals and downstream facilities or affect our ability to import LNG or sell natural gas. In particular, if one of the regions in which our facilities are operating or under development is impacted by such a natural catastrophe in the future, it could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, the economies of such impacted areas may require significant time to recover and there is no assurance that a full recovery will occur.

Weather events such as storms and collateral effects, or other disasters such as explosions, fires, seismic events, floods or accidents, could result in damage to our facilities, including at our regasification terminals and other facilities, interruption of our operations or our supply chain and delays or cost increases in the construction and the development of our planned facilities and higher repair and maintenance costs. Effects of changes in the global climate, such as increased frequency and severity of storms, floods and rising sea levels could have an adverse effect on our marine and coastal operations.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, and we may identify additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, which may result in material misstatements of our financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations, impact investor confidence and the price of our Class A Common Stock or cause our access to the capital markets to be impaired.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. In preparation of our 2020 and 2019 financial statements to meet the requirements applicable for our 2022 IPO, we identified the following material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting which were previously disclosed in our Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed on January 7, 2022, that continue to exist as of December 31, 2022. We did not design and maintain an effective control environment commensurate with public company financial reporting requirements. Specifically, we did not maintain a sufficient complement of personnel with an appropriate degree of internal controls, accounting and tax knowledge,

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experience and training to appropriately analyze, record and disclose accounting matters commensurate with accounting and financial reporting requirements.

This material weakness contributed to the following additional material weaknesses:

These material weaknesses resulted in adjustments to selling, general and administrative expenses, cost of revenue and vessel operating expenses, provision for income taxes and related account balances and disclosures as of and for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.

Additionally, each of the above material weaknesses could result in a misstatement of our account balances or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

Remediation of Previously Identified Material Weaknesses

We previously identified and disclosed in our Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed on January 7, 2022 the following material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, each of which has been remediated as of December 31, 2022, as described below:

To remediate the material weaknesses, we designed and implemented new or enhanced controls and took other actions to improve our internal control over financial reporting, including:

We determined that the remediated controls described above are designed effectively and have operated for a sufficient period of time to appropriately address the material weaknesses described above. Additionally, management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively and the material weaknesses described above have been remediated as of December 31, 2022.

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Status of Remediation Actions

As it relates to the material weaknesses that continue to exist as of December 31, 2022, we have performed the following remediation actions as of that date:

Additionally, we are in the process of designing and implementing controls related to the period-end financial reporting process, including controls related to business performance reviews and manual journal entries, and the completeness and accuracy of our income tax provision. The design and implementation of these controls is in progress and will require validation and testing of their design and operating effectiveness over a sustained period of time. As a result, the timing of when we will be able to remediate the material weaknesses is uncertain. We may also conclude that additional measures will be required to remediate the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, which may necessitate additional implementation and evaluation time.

Increasing scrutiny and changing expectations from investors, lenders and other market participants with respect to our ESG policies may impose additional costs on us or expose us to additional risks.

Companies across all industries are facing increasing scrutiny relating to their Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) policies and expectations in this area are rapidly evolving. Investor advocacy groups, certain institutional investors, investment funds, lenders and other market participants are increasingly focused on ESG practices and in recent years have placed increasing importance on the implications and social cost of their investments. The increased focus and activism related to ESG and similar matters may hinder access to capital, as investors and lenders may decide to reallocate capital or not to commit capital as a result of their assessment of a company’s ESG practices. Companies that do not adapt to or comply with investor, lender or other industry shareholder expectations and standards, which are evolving, or which are perceived to have not responded appropriately to the growing concern for ESG issues, regardless of whether there is a legal requirement to do so, may suffer from reputational damage, costs related to litigation and the business, financial condition or stock price of such a company could be materially and adversely affected.

We may face increasing pressures from investors, lenders and other market participants, who are increasingly focused on climate change, to prioritize sustainable energy practices, reduce our carbon footprint and promote sustainability. As a result, we may be required to implement more stringent ESG procedures or standards so that our existing and future investors and lenders remain invested in us and make further investments in us, especially given the highly focused and specific business of transportation and regasification of LNG and sale of natural gas in which we are engaged. Such ESG corporate transformation calls for an increased resource allocation to serve the necessary changes in that sector, increasing costs and capital expenditure. If we do not meet these standards, our business or our ability to access capital could be harmed.

Additionally, certain investors and lenders may exclude companies engaged in the transportation and regasification of LNG and sale of natural gas, such as us, from their investing portfolios altogether due to ESG factors. These limitations in both the debt and equity capital markets may affect our ability to grow as our plans for growth may include accessing those markets. If those markets are unavailable, or if we are unable to access alternative means of financing on acceptable terms, or at all, we may be unable to implement our business strategy, which would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations and impair our ability to service our indebtedness. Further, it is likely that we will incur additional costs and require additional resources to monitor, report and comply with wide-ranging ESG requirements. Similarly, these policies may negatively impact the ability of other businesses in our supply chain, including natural gas producers, as well as users of LNG and natural gas, to access debt and capital markets. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

Our statements and policies related to sustainability and other ESG goals, objectives and priorities reflect our current plans and do not constitute a guarantee that they will be achieved or fulfilled. Our efforts to research, establish, accomplish and accurately report on these goals, objectives and priorities expose us to numerous operational, reputational, financial, legal and other risks. In particular, our ability to achieve any stated goal, objective and priority, including with respect to emissions reduction, is subject to numerous factors and conditions, some of which are outside of our control. In addition, standards for tracking and reporting on sustainability matters, including climate-related matters, have not been harmonized and continue to evolve. Our processes and controls for reporting sustainability matters, now and in the future, may not always comply with evolving and disparate standards for identifying, measuring and reporting such metrics, including sustainability-related disclosures that may be required of public companies by the SEC, and such standards may change over time, which could result in significant revisions to our current goals, reported progress in achieving such goals or ability to achieve such goals in the future.

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Outbreaks of epidemic and pandemic diseases and governmental responses thereto could adversely affect our business.

Our operations are subject to risks related to outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected, and any future pandemic or epidemic could negatively affect, economic conditions, including energy price volatility, the supply chain, the labor market and the demand for LNG, and may otherwise impact our operations and the operations of our customers and suppliers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, our operations were impacted, including in the following ways: canceled or delayed crew changes; delayed maintenance and repairs for our vessels; unavailability and shortages of spare parts for our vessels; implementation of remote vessel inspection and certification methods; and the incurrence of additional costs.

Potential worker shortages due to outbreaks and travel and social distancing restrictions imposed by governments or corporate policies could impose constraints on our ability to comply with deadlines and requirements set forth in environmental laws and regulations to which our operations are subject, including inspection, monitoring, reporting, certification and training requirements. In addition, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic or any future pandemic, including governmental and other third-party responses thereto, on our customers could enhance the risk of nonpayment by such customers under our contracts and negatively affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Acts of war or terrorism may seriously harm our business.

Acts of war, any outbreak or escalation of hostilities between the United States and any foreign power or between foreign powers or acts of terrorism may cause disruption to the U.S. economy, or the local economies of the markets in which we operate, cause shortages of materials, increase costs associated with obtaining materials, result in uninsured losses, result in the termination of certain customer contracts, affect job growth and consumer confidence or cause economic changes that we cannot anticipate, all of which could reduce demand for natural gas and our services and adversely impact our business, prospects, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Governments could requisition our vessels during a period of war or emergency resulting in a loss of earnings.

Governments of the port states where our FSRUs are located could requisition for title, requisition for hire or seize our vessels. Generally, requisitions occur during a period of war or emergency, including an emergency declared by a government. Although our time charter contracts generally entitle us to compensation from our customer in the event of a requisition of one or more of our vessels, the amount and timing of payments, if any, would be uncertain. A government requisition of one or more of our vessels may cause us to breach covenants in certain of our credit facilities. Government requisition of one or more of our vessels could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition and ability to pay dividends.

We may incur impairments to long-lived assets.

We test our long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of these assets may not be recoverable. Significant negative industry or economic trends, including a significant decline in the market price of our Class A Common Stock, reduced estimates of future cash flows for our business or disruptions to our business could lead to an impairment charge of our long-lived assets. Our valuation methodology for assessing impairment requires management to make judgments and assumptions based on historical experience and to rely heavily on projections of future operating performance. Projections of future operating results and cash flows may vary significantly from results. In addition, if our analysis results in an impairment to our long-lived assets, we may be required to record a charge to earnings in our consolidated financial statements during a period in which such impairment is determined to exist, which may negatively impact our operating results.

FSRU vessel values may fluctuate substantially, and a decline in vessel values may result in impairment charges, the breach of our financial covenants or a loss on the vessels, if these values are lower at a time when we are attempting to dispose of vessels.

Vessel values for FSRUs can fluctuate substantially over time due to a number of different factors, including:

As our vessels age, the expenses associated with maintaining and operating them are expected to increase, which could have an adverse effect on our business and operations if we do not maintain sufficient cash reserves for maintenance and replacement capital expenditures. Moreover, the cost of a replacement vessel would be significant.

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If a regasification contract terminates, we may be unable to re-deploy the affected vessel at attractive rates and, rather than continue to incur costs to maintain and finance the vessel, we may seek to dispose of the vessel. Our inability to dispose of a vessel at a reasonable value could result in a loss on the sale and adversely affect our ability to purchase a replacement vessel, financial condition and results of operations. A decline in the value of our vessels may also result in impairment charges or the breach of certain of the ratios and financial covenants we are required to comply with in our credit facilities.

Information system failures, cyber incidents or breaches in security could adversely affect us.

We rely on accounting, financial, operational, management and other information systems to conduct our operations, including our vessel operations. Our information systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, computer and telecommunication failures, computer viruses, security breaches, including malware and phishing, cyberattacks, natural disasters, usage errors by our employees and other related risks. Any cyber incident or attack or other disruption or failure in these information systems, or other systems or infrastructure upon which they rely, could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business and could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations. For example, we or our customers or suppliers may be subject to retaliatory cyberattacks perpetrated by Russia or others at its direction in response to economic sanctions and other actions taken against Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. In addition, any failure or security breach of information systems or data could result in a violation of applicable privacy and other laws, significant legal and financial exposure, damage to our reputation or a loss of confidence in our security measures, which could also harm our business.

In particular, our vessels rely on information systems for a significant part of their operations, including navigation, provision of services, propulsion, machinery management, power control, communications and cargo management. We have in place safety and security measures on our vessels and onshore operations to secure our vessels against cyber-security attacks and any disruption to their information systems. However, these measures and technology may not adequately prevent security breaches despite our continuous efforts to upgrade and address the latest known threats, which are constantly evolving and have become increasing sophisticated. If these threats are not recognized or detected until they have been launched, we may be unable to anticipate these threats and may not become aware in a timely manner of such a security breach, which could exacerbate any damage we experience. A disruption to the information system of any of our vessels could lead to, among other things, incorrect routing, collision, grounding and propulsion failure.

Our insurance coverage may not be adequate to cover costs, expenses and losses associated with such events, and in any case, such insurance may not cover all of the types of costs, expenses and losses we could incur to respond to and remediate a security breach. Any incidents may result in loss of, or increased costs of, our cybersecurity insurance. We also cannot ensure that our existing insurance coverage will continue to be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims related to a security incident or breach, or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or coinsurance requirements, could adversely affect our reputation and our business, financial condition and/or results of operations. In addition to costs associated with investigating and fully disclosing a data breach, we could be subject to regulatory proceedings or private claims by affected parties, which could result in substantial monetary fines or damages, and our reputation would likely be harmed.

Security breaches could also significantly damage our reputation with customers and third parties with whom we do business. Any publicized security problems affecting our businesses and/or those of such third parties may discourage customers from doing business with us, which could harm our business. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to the Financing of Our Business

Access to financing may not be available on favorable terms, or at all, which could adversely affect our ability to grow our business.

Historically, we have funded our day-to-day operational requirements, capital expenditures, and repayment of indebtedness through debt financing, equity contributions and operating cash flows. Our access to additional third-party sources of financing will depend, in part, on:

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The global credit and equity markets and the overall economy can be extremely volatile, which could have a number of adverse effects on our operations and capital requirements. For the past decade, the domestic financial markets have experienced a high degree of volatility, uncertainty and, during certain periods, tightening of liquidity in both the high yield debt and equity capital markets, resulting in certain periods when new capital has been both more difficult and more expensive to access. If we are unable to access the credit markets, we could be required to defer or eliminate important business strategies and growth opportunities in the future. In addition, if there is prolonged volatility and weakness in the capital and credit markets, potential lenders may be unwilling or unable to provide us with financing that is attractive to us, particularly as a result of rising interest rates, or may increase collateral requirements or may charge us prohibitively high fees in order to obtain financing. Consequently, our ability to access the credit market in order to attract financing on reasonable terms may be adversely affected. Investment returns on our assets and our ability to make acquisitions could be adversely affected by our inability to secure additional financing on reasonable terms, if at all.

Depending on market conditions at the relevant time, we may have to rely more heavily on additional equity financings or on less efficient forms of debt financing that require a larger portion of our cash flow from operations, thereby reducing funds available for our operations, future business opportunities and other purposes. We may not have access to such equity or debt capital on favorable terms at the desired times, or at all.

Our debt level and finance lease liabilities may limit our flexibility in obtaining additional financing, refinancing credit facilities upon maturity or pursuing other business opportunities.

As of December 31, 2022, we had outstanding principal on long-term debt to third parties of $214.3 million and principal on long-term debt to related parties of $188.4 million. In addition, as of December 31, 2022, we had finance lease liabilities to third parties of $231.2 million. For more information regarding our long-term debt and lease liabilities, including applicable interest rates, maturity dates and security interests, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Debt Facilities.” If we acquire additional vessels or businesses or enter into new credit facilities, our consolidated debt may significantly increase.

Our debt level could have important consequences to us, including the following:

Our ability to service or refinance our debt will depend on, among other things, our future financial and operating performance as well as the overall credit worthiness of our customer base, which will be affected by prevailing economic conditions and financial, business, regulatory and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. If our operating results are not sufficient to service or refinance our current or future indebtedness, we will be forced to take actions such as reducing or delaying our business activities, acquisitions, investments or capital expenditures, selling assets, restructuring our debt, or seeking additional equity capital or bankruptcy protection. We may not be able to affect any of these remedies on satisfactory terms, or at all.

In addition, a portion of our variable rate indebtedness may use London Interbank Offering Rate (“LIBOR”) as a benchmark for establishing the rate. The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, stopped publishing one week and 2 month U.S. Dollar (“USD”) LIBOR rates after 2021 with remaining USD LIBOR rates ceasing to be published after June 30, 2023. In the United States, the U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large U.S. financial institutions, has proposed the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), a new index calculated by short-term repurchase agreements backed by Treasury securities, as an alternative to LIBOR. As a result of the cessation of LIBOR, we are evaluating the actions we will take to replace LIBOR with SOFR. SOFR may fluctuate based on general economic conditions, general interest rates, Federal Reserve rates and the supply of and demand for credit in the market.

The volatility of the global financial markets and uncertain economic conditions may adversely impact our results of operations, financial condition, cash flows and ability to obtain financing or refinance our existing and future credit facilities on acceptable terms, which may negatively impact our business.

Concerns over global economic conditions, energy costs, geopolitical issues (including the Russia-Ukraine war), supply chain disruptions, inflation and the availability and cost of credit have contributed to increased economic uncertainty. An economic slowdown

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or recession in the United States or in any other country that significantly affects the supply of or demand for natural gas and LNG could negatively impact our operations and therefore adversely affect our results. Global economic conditions have a significant impact on natural gas and LNG prices and stagnation or deterioration in global economic conditions could result in less demand for our services. Adverse global economic conditions may cause our customers, vendors and/or suppliers to lose access to the financing necessary to sustain or increase their current level of operations, fulfill their commitments and/or fund future operations and obligations. These conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Increased volatility in the financial markets and potential solvency concerns about our counterparties could make the availability and cost of obtaining money from the public and private equity and debt markets more difficult. Lenders may increase interest rates, enact tighter lending standards, refuse to refinance existing debt at all or on terms similar to current debt and reduce or cease to provide funding to borrowers and other market participants, including equity and debt investors. Some lenders may be unwilling to invest on attractive terms or even at all. Due to these factors, we cannot be certain that financing will be available if needed and to the extent required, or that we will be able to refinance our existing and future credit facilities, on acceptable terms or at all. If financing or refinancing is not available when needed, or is available only on unfavorable terms, we may be unable to meet our obligations as they come due, or we may be unable to enhance our existing business, complete additional vessel acquisitions or otherwise take advantage of business opportunities as they arise.

Until recently, global financial markets had operated in an ultra-low interest rate environment since the 2008 financial crisis, which has resulted in abnormal fund flows and traditional investment grade versus non-investment grade credit spreads. If interest rates and credit spreads continue to rise and revert to more normal patterns, it could adversely impact our ability to maintain investment returns and/or affect the investment returns of future project opportunities.

Our financing agreements are secured by certain of our vessels and contain operating and financial restrictions and covenants that may restrict our business, financing activities and ability to pay dividends to our shareholders.

Our obligations under our financing arrangements, including the Amended Credit Agreement (as defined herein), are secured by various forms of collateral, including, but not limited to, pledged or assigned customer contracts and certain of our vessels and guaranteed by our subsidiaries holding the interests in our vessels. Our loan agreements impose, and future financial obligations may impose, significant operating and financial restrictions on us. These restrictions may require the consent of our lenders, or may prevent or otherwise limit our ability to, among other things:

Our loan agreements and lease financing arrangements also require us to maintain specific financial levels and ratios, including, as applicable, minimum amounts of available cash, minimum levels of stockholders’ equity, minimum consolidated interest coverage, maximum consolidated total leverage, maximum loan amounts to value, and collateral vessel maintenance coverage. If we were to fail to maintain these levels and ratios without obtaining a waiver of covenant compliance or modification to the covenants, we would be in default of our loans and lease financing agreements, which, unless waived by our lenders, could provide our lenders with the right to require us to increase the minimum value held by us under our equity and liquidity covenants, increase our interest payments, pay down our indebtedness to a level where we are in compliance with our loan covenants, sell vessels in our fleet or reclassify our indebtedness as current liabilities and could allow our lenders to accelerate our indebtedness and foreclose their liens on our vessels, which could result in the loss of our vessels. If our indebtedness is accelerated, we may not be able to refinance our debt or obtain additional financing, which would impair our ability to continue to conduct our business. Refinanced credit facilities and future credit facilities may also contain financial and operating covenants that are more restrictive than our current set of financial covenants.

Events beyond our control, including changes in the economic and business conditions in the industry in which we operate, interest rate developments, changes in the funding costs of our banks, changes in vessel earnings and asset valuations and outbreaks of epidemic and pandemic diseases, such as the recent outbreak of Covid-19, may affect our ability to comply with these covenants. In the past, we did not maintain compliance with these covenants. As of December 31, 2020, we were not in compliance with three non-financial covenants under two loan agreements with external banks. Subsequent to December 31, 2020, two non-financial covenants were cured, and a waiver was obtained for the remaining non-financial covenant such that we are no longer in an event of default. We were in

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compliance with all covenants as of December 31, 2022 but cannot provide any assurance that we will continue to meet these ratios or satisfy our financial or other covenants or that our lenders will waive any failure to do so.

Maritime claimants could arrest our vessels, which could interrupt our cash flow.

If we are in default on certain kinds of obligations related to our vessels, such as those to our lenders, crew members, suppliers of goods and services to our vessels or shippers of cargo, these parties may be entitled to a maritime lien against one or more of our vessels. In many jurisdictions, a maritime lien holder may enforce its lien by arresting a vessel through foreclosure proceedings. In certain jurisdictions, claimants could try to assert “sister ship” liability against one vessel in our fleet for claims relating to another of our vessels. The arrest or attachment of one or more of our vessels could interrupt our cash flow and require us to pay to have the arrest lifted. This would negatively impact our revenues and reduce our cash flow.

Failure to maintain sufficient working capital could limit our growth and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have significant working capital requirements, primarily driven by the delay between the purchase of LNG and payment for natural gas and the extended payment terms that we offer our customers. Differences between the date when we pay our suppliers and the date when we receive payments from our customers may adversely affect our liquidity and our cash flows. We expect our working capital needs to increase as our total business increases. If we do not have sufficient working capital, we may not be able to pursue our growth strategy, respond to competitive pressures or fund key strategic initiatives, such as the development of our facilities, which may harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are exposed to U.S. dollar and foreign currency fluctuations and devaluations and interest rate changes that could harm our reported revenue and results of operations.

Our principal currency for our operations and financing, and the currency in which we generate the majority of our revenues, is the U.S. dollar. Apart from the U.S. dollar, we incur a portion of capital, operating and administrative expenses in multiple currencies. The amount of our revenues denominated in a particular currency in a particular country may vary from the amount of expenses incurred by our operations in that country, given that certain costs may be incurred in a currency different from the local currency of that country.

Due to a portion of our expenses being incurred in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, our expenses may, from time to time, increase relative to our revenues as a result of fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly between the U.S. dollar and the Euro, Argentine Peso, Brazilian Real and the Bangladeshi Taka, which could affect the amount of net income that we report in future periods. In the future, we may use financial derivatives to hedge some of our currency exposure. At times, revenue may be generated in local currency, which could be subject to currency fluctuations and devaluations. Additionally, some of the jurisdictions in which we operate may limit our ability to exchange local currency for U.S. dollars and elect to intervene by implementing exchange rate regimes, including sudden devaluations, periodic mini devaluations, exchange controls, dual exchange rate markets and a floating exchange rate system. There can be no assurance that non-U.S. currencies will not be subject to volatility and depreciation or that the current exchange rate policies affecting these currencies will remain the same. For example, the Brazilian Real has experienced significant fluctuations relative to the U.S. dollar in the past.

In the future, we may use financial derivatives to hedge some of this currency exposure. In addition, we use interest rate hedges to manage our exposure to variable interest rates on our outstanding indebtedness. Although we may manage risks associated with fluctuations in interest rates through financial hedging instruments, fluctuations in interest rates and counterparty risk could have a material adverse effect on our results. The use of financial derivatives involves certain risks, including the risk that losses on a hedged position could exceed the nominal amount invested in the instrument and the risk that the counterparty to the derivative transaction may be unable or unwilling to satisfy its contractual obligations, which could have an adverse effect on our results.

Any use of commodity hedging arrangements may adversely affect our future operating results or liquidity.

To reduce our exposure to fluctuations in the price, volume and timing risk associated with the purchase of LNG and sale of natural gas, we have entered and may in the future enter into futures, swaps and option contracts traded or cleared on the Intercontinental Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange or over-the-counter options and swaps with other natural gas merchants and financial institutions. Hedging arrangements would expose us to risk of financial loss in some circumstances, including when expected supply is less than the amount hedged, the counterparty to the hedging contract defaults on its contractual obligations or there is a change in the expected differential between the underlying price in the hedging agreement and actual prices received.

The use of derivatives also may require the posting of cash collateral with counterparties, which can impact working capital when commodity prices change. Failure to properly hedge any positions that we may have from time to time against changes in natural gas prices could also have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

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Risks Related to Regulations

Our operations are subject to various international treaties and conventions and national and local environmental, health, safety and maritime conduct laws and regulations. Compliance with these obligations, and any future changes to laws and regulations applicable to our business, may have an adverse effect on our business.

Our operations are affected by extensive and changing international treaties and conventions, and national and local environmental protection, health, safety and maritime conduct laws and regulations, including those in force in international waters, the jurisdictional waters of the countries in which our vessels operate and the onshore territories in which our facilities are located, as well as Belgium and the Marshall Islands where our vessels are registered. These include rules governing response to and liability for oil spills, discharges to air and water, maritime transport of certain materials, discharge of ballast water and the handling and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes. In addition, our vessels are subject to safety and other obligations under law and the requirements of the classification societies that certify our vessels relating to safety and seaworthiness.

The operation of our vessels is affected by the requirements set forth in the International Safety Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (the “ISM Code”). The ISM Code requires shipowners, ship managers and bareboat charterers to develop and maintain an extensive “Safety Management System” that includes the adoption of a safety and environmental protection policy setting forth instructions and procedures for safe operation and describing procedures for dealing with emergencies. If we fail to comply with the ISM Code, we may be subject to increased liability, our existing insurance coverage for our affected vessels may be invalidated or the availability of insurance coverage may decrease, and such issues may result in a denial of access to, or detention in, certain ports.

Compliance with and limitations imposed by these laws, regulations, treaties, conventions, and other requirements, and any future additions or changes to such laws or requirements, may increase our costs or limit our operations and have an adverse effect on our business. Failure to comply can result in administrative and civil penalties, criminal sanctions or the suspension or termination of our operations, including, in certain instances, seizure or detention of our vessels. In addition, these requirements can affect the resale value or useful lives of our ships, require a reduction in cargo capacity, necessitate ship modifications or operations changes or lead to decreased availability of insurance coverage for environmental matters. We also believe that the heightened environmental, quality and security concerns of insurance underwriters, regulators and charterers will generally lead to additional regulatory requirements, including enhanced risk assessment and security requirements, as well as greater inspection and safety requirements on all LNG carriers in the marine transportation market. These requirements are likely to add incremental costs to our operations, and the failure to comply with these requirements may affect the ability of our ships to obtain and, possibly, recover from, insurance policies or to obtain the required certificates for entry into the different ports where we operate.

Some environmental laws and regulations, such as the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990, or “OPA,” provide for potentially unlimited joint, several and strict liability for owners, operators and demise or bareboat charterers for oil pollution and related damages. OPA applies to discharges of any oil from a ship in U.S. waters, including discharges of fuel and lubricants from an LNGC, even if the ships do not carry oil as cargo. In addition, many states in the United States bordering a navigable waterway have enacted legislation providing for potentially unlimited strict liability without regard to fault for the discharge of pollutants within their waters. We also are subject to other laws outside the United States and international conventions that provide for an owner or operator of LNGCs to bear strict liability for pollution.

Climate change concerns and greenhouse gas regulations and impacts may adversely impact our operations and markets.

Due to concern over the risk of climate change, a number of countries and the IMO have adopted, or are considering the adoption of, regulatory frameworks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vessels. These regulatory measures may include, among others, adoption of cap and trade regimes, carbon taxes, increased efficiency standards and incentives or mandates for renewable energy. Although the emissions of greenhouse gases from international shipping currently are not subject to the international treaty on climate change known as the Paris Agreement, a new treaty or IMO regulations may be adopted in the future that includes restrictions on shipping emissions. In 2016, the IMO reaffirmed its strong commitment to continue to work to address greenhouse gas emissions from ships engaged in international trade. The IMO adopted an initial GHG reduction strategy in 2018 as a framework for further action with adoption of a revised IMO strategy targeted for 2023 (the “IMO GHG Strategy”). Consistent with the IMO GHG Strategy goal of reducing GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 50% by 2050, as compared to 2008 levels, IMO’s MEPC agreed upon draft amendments to MARPOL Annex VI that would establish an enforceable regulatory framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, consisting of technical and operational carbon reduction measures, including use of an Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index, an operational CII and an enhanced Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan. These amendments were formally adopted at the 2021 MEPC session and will enter into force on January 1, 2023. Such legislation or regulations has required and may in the future require additional capital expenditures or operating expenses, such as increased costs for low-sulfur fuel needed to meet IMO 2020 requirements, for us to maintain our vessels’ compliance with international and/or national regulations.

In addition, in September 2021, a group of over 150 companies, including shipping companies, oil companies and port authorities, called on regulators to require the shipping industry to be fully decarbonized by 2050.

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The EU has indicated it intends to implement regulations to limit emissions of greenhouse gases from vessels if such emissions are not regulated through the IMO and, in September 2020, the European Parliament approved draft legislation that would put in place measures to address greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. Further on July 14, 2021, the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals on how it intends to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050 (Fit for 55 Package). The proposals include incorporating the shipping industry into the European Union Emissions Trading System (“EU ETS”). An agreement reached in November 2022 will extend the EU ETS to cover shipping and will require ship operators to pay for the greenhouse gas emissions during their voyages to, from and between EU ports, with a phase-in period starting in 2024. There is also an initiative to increase the demand and deployment of renewable alternative transport fuels, and a proposal to review the Energy Taxation Directive with regard to the current exemption of fuel used by ships from taxation. Compliance with changes in laws and regulations relating to climate change could increase our costs of operating and maintaining our vessels and could require us to make significant financial expenditures that we cannot predict with certainty at this time. Further, our business may be adversely affected to the extent that climate change results in sea level changes or more intense weather events.

Laws and regulations inside and outside the United States relating to climate change affecting the LNG and natural gas industry, including the use of natural gas to generate electricity, growing public concern about the environmental impact of climate change, and broader, economy-wide legislative initiatives to reduce or phase out the use of fossil fuels could adversely affect our business. For example, laws, regulations and other initiatives to shift electricity generation away from fossil fuels to renewable sources over time are at various stages of implementation and consideration and may continue to be adopted in the future in the markets in which we operate. Although it is our expectation that these efforts may reduce global demand for natural gas and increase demand for alternative energy sources in the long term, these changes may occur on a more accelerated basis then we currently project. According to the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (COP27), its central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by limiting a global temperature rise this century to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels and net zero by the early 2050s. The United States and EU have set themselves 2050 climate neutrality goals, while emerging countries like China and India are aiming for 2060 and 2070, respectively. Any long-term material adverse effects on the LNG and natural gas industry as a result of climate change and energy transition objectives could have a significant, adverse financial and operational impact on our business that we cannot predict with certainty at this time.

Failure to comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-bribery legislation in other jurisdictions could result in fines, criminal penalties, contract terminations and an adverse effect on our business.

We are subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations worldwide, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), which generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business or other benefits. Some of the jurisdictions in which we currently, or may in the future, operate may present heightened risks for corruption. Although we have adopted policies and procedures that are designed to ensure that we, our employees and other intermediaries comply with applicable anti-corruption laws, including the FCPA, it is highly challenging to adopt policies and procedures that ensure compliance in all respects with such laws, particularly in high-risk jurisdictions. Developing and implementing policies and procedures is a complex endeavor, and detecting, investigating, and resolving actual or alleged violations is expensive and could consume significant time and attention of our senior management. There is no assurance that these policies and procedures will work effectively all of the time or protect us against liability under anti-corruption laws and regulations, including the FCPA, for actions taken by our employees and other intermediaries with respect to our business or any businesses that we may acquire.

If we are not in compliance with anti-corruption laws and regulations, including the FCPA, we may be subject to costly and intrusive criminal and civil investigations as well significant potential criminal and civil penalties and other remedial measures, including changes or enhancements to our procedures, policies and control, as well as potential personnel change and disciplinary actions. In addition, non-compliance with anti-corruption laws could constitute a breach of certain covenants in operational or debt agreements, and cross-default provisions in certain of our agreements could mean that an event of default under certain of our commercial agreements could trigger an event of default under our other agreements, including our debt agreements. Any adverse finding against us could also negatively affect our relationship with current and potential customers as well as our reputation generally. The occurrence of any of these events could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and future business prospects.

We are subject to numerous governmental international trade and economic sanctions laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with such laws and regulations could subject us to liability and have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

We conduct business throughout the world, and our business activities and services are subject to various applicable import and export control laws and regulations of the United States and other countries in which we do or seek to do business. We must also comply with U.S. international trade and economic sanctions laws, including the U.S. Commerce Department’s Export Administration Regulations and economic and trade sanctions regulations maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. For example, in response to Russia’s expanded invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and certain other countries imposed significant sanctions and export controls against Russia, Belarus and certain individuals and entities connected to

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Russian or Belarusian political, business and financial organizations. The United States and other countries could impose further sanctions, trade restrictions and other retaliatory actions should the conflict continue or worsen. Although we take precautions to comply with all such laws and regulations, the violation of international trade and economic sanctions laws and regulations could result in negative consequences to us, including government investigations, sanctions, criminal or civil fines or penalties, more onerous compliance requirements, loss of authorizations needed to conduct aspects of our international business, reputational harm and other adverse collateral consequences. Moreover, it is possible that we could invest both time and capital into a project involving a country or counterparty that may become subject to international trade controls or economic sanctions. If this were to occur, we may face an array of issues, including, but not limited to: having to suspend our development or operations on a temporary or permanent basis, being unable to recuperate prior invested time and capital or being subject to lawsuits, investigations or regulatory proceedings that could be time-consuming and expensive to respond to and which could lead to criminal or civil fines or penalties, impairing our ability to access U.S. capital markets and conduct our business.

In addition, in certain countries, we serve or expect to serve our customers through third-party agents and other intermediaries. Violations of applicable international trade and economic sanctions, and anti-corruption laws and regulations by these third-party agents or intermediaries may also result in adverse consequences and repercussions to us. There can be no assurance that we and our agents and other intermediaries will be in compliance with these provisions in the future. The occurrence of any of these events could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and future business prospects. The U.S. sanctions and embargo laws and regulations vary in their application, as they do not all apply to the same covered persons or proscribe the same activities, and such sanctions and embargo laws and regulations may be amended or strengthened over time. Although we believe that we have been in compliance with all applicable sanctions, embargo and anti-corruption laws and regulations, and intend to maintain such compliance, there can be no assurance that we will be in compliance in the future, particularly as the scope of certain laws may be unclear and may be subject to changing interpretations.

None of our vessels have called on ports located in countries subject to comprehensive sanctions and embargoes imposed by the U.S. government or countries identified by the U.S. government as state sponsors of terrorism. When we charter our vessels to third parties we conduct comprehensive due diligence of the charterer and include prohibitions on the charterer calling on ports in countries subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions or otherwise engaging in commerce with such countries. If our charterers or sub-charterers violate applicable sanctions and embargo laws and regulations as a result of actions that do not involve us, those violations could in turn negatively affect our reputation and cause us to incur significant costs associated with responding to any investigation into such violations.

Failure to comply with current or future federal, state and foreign laws and regulations and industry standards relating to privacy, data protection, advertising and consumer protection could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We are subject to various privacy, information security, and data protection laws, rules, and regulations that present an ever-evolving regulatory landscape across multiple jurisdictions and industry sections. Federal, state, and foreign legislators and/or regulators are increasingly adopting, specifying or revising privacy, information security, and data protection laws, rules, and regulations that potentially could have a significant impact on our current and planned privacy, data protection, and information security-related practices (e.g., our collection, use, storing, sharing, retention and safeguarding and otherwise processing of certain types of consumer or employee information); and some of our current or planned business activities, which could further increase our costs of compliance and business operations and could reduce income from certain business initiatives.

Compliance with current or future privacy, information security and data protection laws, rules and regulations (including those regarding security breach notification) related to individuals’ data (which may broadly include business-to-business contacts or employees data) to which we are subject could result in higher compliance and technology costs and could restrict our ability to provide certain products and services (such as products or services that involve sharing information with third parties). Additionally, regulators may attempt to assert authority over our business in the area of privacy, information security and data protection. If our vendors also become subject to new and additional laws, rules and regulations in more stringent and expansive jurisdictions, this could result in increasing costs to our business. We cannot predict the effect compliance with any such laws or regulations may have on our operating environment.

For example, while we do not have more than incidental or occasional contacts with the state of California, we may be subject to the new California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), which modifies the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, including to apply the law to business-to-business contacts’ and employees’ data. The CPRA went into effect January 1, 2023, and imposes additional data protection obligations on companies doing business in California, potentially resulting in further complexity. The effects of the CPRA, other similar state or federal laws, rules and regulations, and other future changes in laws, rules or regulations, may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies, could increase the cost of providing our offerings, require changes to our operations, or could cause us to incur potential liability in an effort to comply with such legislation. Other state legislatures have passed, or are currently contemplating, and may pass, their own comprehensive data privacy and security laws, and the effects of this legislation may impact our business.

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Internationally, many jurisdictions have established their own data security and privacy legal frameworks, including data localization and storage requirements, with which we may need to comply. For example, the EU and many countries in Europe have stringent privacy laws and regulations, which may affect our ability to operate cost effectively in European countries. In particular, the EU has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which went into effect on May 25, 2018 and contains numerous requirements. The GDPR applies to (i) the processing of personal data carried out in the context of the activities of a company established in the EU; and (ii) the processing of personal data carried out by a company not established in the EU where such processing relates to (a) the offering of goods or services to data subjects who are in the EU, or (b) the monitoring of the behavior of data subjects who are in the EU. Specifically, the GDPR provides for numerous privacy-related provisions, including control for data subjects (e.g., the “right to be forgotten” and the right to data portability), the implementation of appropriate security measures, personal data breach notification requirements, and important administrative fines. In particular, under the GDPR, fines of up to 20 million Euros or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is greater, could be imposed for violations of certain of the GDPR’s requirements. Considering our physical presence in Belgium and employment of individuals in the EU, complying with the GDPR may cause us to incur substantial operational costs or require us to change our business practices. Despite our efforts to bring practices into compliance with the GDPR, we may not be successful either due to internal or external factors such as resource allocation limitations or a lack of vendor cooperation. Non-compliance could result in proceedings against us by supervisory authorities, customers, data subjects or others. We may also experience difficulty retaining or obtaining new European or multi-national customers due to potential increases in our compliance costs, increased potential risk exposure, and uncertainty for these entities, and we may experience significantly increased liability with respect to these customers pursuant to the terms set forth in our engagements with them.

Recent legal developments in Europe have created complexity and regulatory compliance uncertainty regarding the transfers of personal data subject to the GDPR to countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) that are not considered by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection (including the United States). In particular, on July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (“Privacy Shield”) under which personal data could be transferred from the EEA to U.S. entities who had self-certified under the Privacy Shield program. While the CJEU upheld the adequacy of EU-specified standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”) as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism, it made clear that reliance on them alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances and that their use must be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into account the surveillance laws in and the right of individuals afforded by, the destination country. When relying on SCCs, the data exporters are also required to conduct a transfer risk assessment to verify if anything in the law and/or practices of the destination country may impinge on the effectiveness of the SCCs in the context of the transfer at stake and, if so, to identify and adopt supplementary measures that are necessary to bring the level of protection of the data transferred to the EU standard of essential equivalence. Where no supplementary measure is suitable, the data exporter should avoid, suspend or terminate the transfer. We rely on a mixture of mechanisms to transfer personal data from the EEA to the U.S. (including having previously relied on Privacy Shield) and are evaluating what additional mechanisms may be required to establish adequate safeguards for personal data. Although the European Commission issued revised SCCs in June 2021, as supervisory authorities continue to issue further guidance on personal data export mechanisms, including circumstances where the SCCs cannot be used and/or start taking enforcement action, we could suffer additional costs, complaints, and/or regulatory investigations or fines. Moreover, if we are otherwise unable to transfer personal data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, and we may find it necessary to establish systems in the EEA to maintain personal data in the EEA, which may involve substantial expense and distraction from other aspects of our business. In the meantime, there could be uncertainty as to how to comply with EU privacy law.

Further, the United Kingdom’s vote in favor of exiting the EU, often referred to as Brexit, and ongoing developments in the United Kingdom have created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the United Kingdom, which is now governed by a United Kingdom version of the GDPR (combining the GDPR and the United Kingdom’s Data Protection Act 2018), potentially exposing us to two parallel regimes, each of which could authorize similar fines and potentially divergent enforcement actions for certain violations. Other countries have also passed or are considering passing laws requiring local data residency or restricting the international transfer of data.

Because the interpretation and application of many privacy and data protection laws, rules and regulations along with contractually imposed industry standards are uncertain, it is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or the features of our solutions and platform capabilities, which could adversely impact our business by requiring us to change our business activities or modify our solutions and platform capabilities and result in fines, lawsuits and other claims and penalties. Any inability to adequately address privacy and security concerns or comply with applicable privacy and data security laws, rules, regulations and policies, could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation, inhibit growth, and otherwise adversely affect our business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, rules, regulations and policies that are applicable to our businesses may limit the use and adoption of, and reduce the overall demand for, our solutions. Privacy and data security concerns may inhibit market adoption of our solutions, particularly in certain industries and foreign countries. If we are not able to adjust to changing laws, rules and information security, our business may be harmed.

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Risks Related to Our Organization and Structure and Tax Matters

We are a holding company, and we are accordingly dependent upon distributions from our subsidiaries to pay dividends, if any, taxes and other expenses and to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement.

We are a holding company and have no material assets other than our ownership of equity interests in our subsidiaries. See “Business—Organizational Structure” in this Report for additional information. We have no independent means of generating revenue. Substantially all of our assets are held through subsidiaries of EELP. EELP’s cash flow is dependent on cash distributions from its subsidiaries, and, in turn, substantially all of our cash flow is dependent on cash distributions from EELP. We also incur expenses related to our operations and will have obligations to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. The creditors of each of our direct and indirect subsidiaries are entitled to payment of that subsidiary’s obligations to them, when due and payable, before distributions may be made by that subsidiary to its equity holders.

EELP’s ability to make distributions to us depends on its subsidiaries’ ability to first satisfy their obligations to their creditors. We intend to cause EELP to make distributions to us pursuant to the EELP Limited Partnership Agreement in an amount sufficient to cover our expenses, all applicable taxes payable and dividends, if any, declared by us, and to enable us to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. Deterioration in the financial conditions, earnings or cash flow of EELP and its subsidiaries for any reason could limit or impair their ability to pay such distributions. Thus, our ability to cover our expenses, all applicable taxes payable and dividends, if any, declared by us depends on EELP’s ability to first satisfy its obligations to its creditors.

In addition, our participation in any distribution of the assets of any of our direct or indirect subsidiaries upon any liquidation, reorganization or insolvency is only after the claims of such subsidiaries’ creditors, including trade creditors, are satisfied. Furthermore, some of our financing arrangements contain negative covenants, limiting the ability of our subsidiaries to declare or pay dividends or make distributions. To the extent that we need funds, and our subsidiaries are restricted from declaring or paying such dividends or making such distributions under applicable law or regulations, or otherwise unable to provide such funds, for example, due to restrictions in future financing arrangements that limit the ability of our operating subsidiaries to distribute funds, our liquidity and financial condition could be materially harmed.

We will be required to pay over to the TRA Beneficiaries most of the tax benefits available to us in respect of our acquisition of interests of EELP, and the amount of those payments are expected to be substantial.

We entered into a Tax Receivable Agreement with EE Holdings and the George Kaiser Family Foundation (the “Foundation”) (or their affiliates) (together, the “TRA Beneficiaries”) and the representative of the TRA Beneficiaries. The Tax Receivable Agreement provides for payment by us to the TRA Beneficiaries of 85% of the amount of the net cash tax savings, if any, that we are deemed to realize as a result of (i) certain increases in the tax basis of assets of EELP and its subsidiaries resulting from exchanges of EELP partnership interests in the future, (ii) certain tax attributes of EELP and subsidiaries of EELP (including the existing tax basis of assets owned by EELP or its subsidiaries and the tax basis of the Foundation Vessels) that existed as of the time of the IPO or may exist at the time when Class B interests of EELP are exchanged for shares of Class A Common Stock, and (iii) certain other tax benefits related to Excelerate entering into the Tax Receivable Agreement, including tax benefits attributable to payments that Excelerate makes under the Tax Receivable Agreement. We will retain the benefit of the remaining 15% of these deemed net cash tax savings.

The term of the Tax Receivable Agreement commenced upon the completion of the IPO and will continue until all tax benefits that are subject to the Tax Receivable Agreement have been utilized or have expired, unless we exercise our right to terminate the Tax Receivable Agreement (or it is terminated due to a change in control or our breach of a material obligation thereunder), in which case, we will be required to make the termination payment specified in the Tax Receivable Agreement. In addition, payments we make under the Tax Receivable Agreement will be increased by any interest accrued from the due date (without extensions) of the corresponding tax return. The actual future payments to the TRA Beneficiaries will vary based on the factors discussed below, and estimating the amount and timing of payments that may be made under the Tax Receivable Agreement is by its nature imprecise, as the calculation of amounts payable depends on a variety of factors and future events. We expect to receive distributions from EELP in order to make any required payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. However, we may need to incur debt to finance payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement to the extent such distributions or our cash resources are insufficient to meet our obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement as a result of timing discrepancies or otherwise.

The amount and timing of any payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement will vary depending on a number of factors, including the price of our Class A Common Stock at the time of the exchange; the timing of future exchanges; the extent to which exchanges are taxable; the amount and timing of the utilization of tax attributes; the amount, timing and character of our income; the U.S. federal, state and local tax rates then applicable; the amount of each exchanging partner’s tax basis in its interests at the time of the relevant exchange; the depreciation and amortization periods that apply to the assets of EELP and its subsidiaries; the timing and amount of any earlier payments that we may have made under the Tax Receivable Agreement and the portion of our payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement that constitute imputed interest or give rise to depreciable or amortizable tax basis. We expect that, as a result of the increases in the tax basis of the tangible and intangible assets of EELP attributable to the exchanged EELP interests and certain other tax benefits (including the existing tax basis of assets owned by EELP or its subsidiaries and the tax basis of the Foundation Vessels),

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the payments that we will be required to make to the holders of rights under the Tax Receivable Agreement could be substantial. There may be a material negative effect on our financial condition and liquidity if, as described below, the payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement exceed the actual benefits we receive in respect of the tax attributes subject to the Tax Receivable Agreement and/or distributions to us by EELP are not sufficient to permit us to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement.

In certain circumstances, payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement may be accelerated and/or significantly exceed the actual tax benefits, if any, that we actually realize.

The Tax Receivable Agreement provides that if (i) we exercise our right to early termination of the Tax Receivable Agreement in whole (that is, with respect to all benefits due to all of the TRA Beneficiaries) or in part (that is, with respect to some benefits due to the TRA Beneficiaries), (ii) we experience certain changes in control, (iii) the Tax Receivable Agreement is rejected in certain bankruptcy proceedings, (iv) we fail (subject to certain exceptions) to make a payment under the Tax Receivable Agreement within 180 days after the due date or (v) we materially breach our obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement, we will be obligated to make an early termination payment to holders of rights under the Tax Receivable Agreement equal to the present value of all payments that would be required to be paid by us under the Tax Receivable Agreement. The amount of such payments will be determined on the basis of certain assumptions in the Tax Receivable Agreement, including (i) the assumption that we would have enough taxable income in the future to fully utilize the tax benefit resulting from the tax assets that are the subject of the Tax Receivable Agreement, (ii) the assumption that any item of loss, deduction or credit generated by a basis adjustment or imputed interest arising in a taxable year preceding the taxable year that includes an early termination will be used by us ratably from such taxable year through the earlier of (x) the scheduled expiration of such tax item or (y) 15 years; (iii) the assumption that any non-amortizable assets are deemed to be disposed of in a fully taxable transaction on the fifteenth anniversary of the earlier of the basis adjustment and the early termination date; (iv) the assumption that U.S. federal, state and local tax rates will be the same as in effect on the early termination date, unless scheduled to change; and (v) the assumption that any interests of EELP (other than those held by us) outstanding on the termination date are deemed to be exchanged for an amount equal to the market value of the corresponding number of shares of Class A Common Stock on the termination date. Any early termination payment may be made significantly in advance of the actual realization, if any, of the future tax benefits to which the termination payment relates. The amount of the early termination payment is determined by discounting the present value of all payments that would be required to be paid by us under the Tax Receivable Agreement at a rate equal to the lesser of (i) 6.5% and (ii) LIBOR (or an acceptable LIBOR replacement rate) plus 400 basis points.

Moreover, as a result of an elective early termination, a change in control or our material breach of our obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement, we could be required to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement that exceed our actual cash savings under the Tax Receivable Agreement. Thus, our obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement could have a substantial negative effect on our financial condition and liquidity and could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing certain mergers, asset sales, or other forms of business combinations or changes in control. We cannot assure you that we will be able to finance any early termination payment. It is also possible that the actual benefits ultimately realized by us may be significantly less than were projected in the computation of the early termination payment. We will not be reimbursed if the actual benefits ultimately realized by us are less than were projected in the computation of the early termination payment.

Payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement will be based on the tax reporting positions that we will determine and the IRS or another tax authority may challenge all or part of the tax basis increases, as well as other related tax positions we take, and a court could sustain such challenge. If any tax benefits that have given rise to payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement are subsequently disallowed, we would be entitled to reduce future amounts otherwise payable to a holder of rights under the Tax Receivable Agreement to the extent the holder has received excess payments. However, the required final and binding determination that a holder of rights under the Tax Receivable Agreement has received excess payments may not be made for a number of years following commencement of any challenge, and we will not be permitted to reduce its payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement until there has been a final and binding determination, by which time sufficient subsequent payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement may not be available to offset prior payments for disallowed benefits. We will not be reimbursed for any payments previously made under the Tax Receivable Agreement if the basis increases described above are successfully challenged by the IRS or another taxing authority. Moreover, payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement are calculated on the basis of certain assumptions, which may deviate from reality, including, for example, (i) that the increase in tax basis of the assets of EELP that results from exchanges of Class B interests for shares of Class A Common Stock will be determined without regard to the existing tax basis of the assets of EELP and (ii) if Excelerate holds interests of EELP through one or more wholly-owned subsidiaries, the assumption that no such subsidiary exists and Excelerate holds all of its EELP interests directly. As a result, in certain circumstances, payments could be made under the Tax Receivable Agreement that are significantly in excess of the benefit that we actually realize in respect of the increases in tax basis (and utilization of certain other tax benefits) and we may not be able to recoup those payments, which could adversely affect our financial condition and liquidity.

In certain circumstances, EELP will be required to make distributions to us and the other partners of EELP, and the distributions that EELP will be required to make may be substantial.

EELP is expected to continue to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, as such, is not generally subject to entity-level U.S. federal income tax. Instead, taxable income will be allocated to partners, including us, pursuant to the EELP

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Limited Partnership Agreement. EELP will make tax distributions to its partners, including us, which generally will be pro rata based on the ownership of EELP interests, calculated using an assumed tax rate, to help each of the partners to pay taxes on that partner’s allocable share of EELP’s net taxable income. Under applicable tax rules, EELP is required to allocate net taxable income disproportionately to its partners in certain circumstances. Because tax distributions may be determined based on the partner who is allocated the largest amount of taxable income on a per interest basis and on an assumed tax rate that generally is the highest rate applicable to any partner but will be made pro rata based on ownership of EELP interests, EELP may be required to make tax distributions that, in the aggregate, exceed the aggregate amount of taxes payable by its partners with respect to the allocation of EELP income.

Funds used by EELP to satisfy its tax distribution obligations will not be available for reinvestment in our business. Moreover, the tax distributions EELP will be required to make may be substantial and may significantly exceed (as a percentage of EELP’s income) the overall effective tax rate applicable to a similarly situated corporate taxpayer. In addition, because these payments will be calculated with reference to an assumed tax rate, and because of the disproportionate allocation of net taxable income, these payments may significantly exceed the actual tax liability of the partners of EELP.

As a result of potential differences in the amount of net taxable income allocable to us and to the existing partners of EELP, as well as the use of an assumed tax rate in calculating EELP’s distribution obligations, we may receive distributions significantly in excess of our tax liabilities and obligations to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. We may choose to manage these excess distributions through a number of different approaches, including by applying them to general corporate purposes.

No adjustments to the redemption or exchange ratio of EELP interests for shares of our Class A Common Stock will be made as a result of either (i) any cash distribution by us or (ii) any cash that we retain and do not distribute to our stockholders. To the extent that we do not distribute such excess cash as dividends on our Class A Common Stock and instead, for example, hold such cash balances or lend them to EELP, holders of EELP interests would benefit from any value attributable to such cash balances as a result of their ownership of Class A Common Stock following a redemption or exchange of their EELP interests.

We may be required to pay additional taxes because of the U.S. federal partnership audit rules and potentially also state and local tax rules.

Under the U.S. federal partnership audit rules, subject to certain exceptions, audit adjustments to items of income, gain, loss, deduction, or credit of an entity (and any holder’s share thereof) is determined, and taxes, interest, and penalties attributable thereto, are assessed and collected, at the entity level. EELP (or any of its applicable subsidiaries or other entities in which EELP directly or indirectly invests that are treated as partnerships for U.S. federal income tax purposes) may be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties as a result of an audit adjustment, and we, as a partner of EELP (or such other entities), could be required to indirectly bear the economic burden of those taxes, interest, and penalties even though we may not otherwise have been required to pay additional corporate-level taxes as a result of the related audit adjustment. Audit adjustments for state or local tax purposes could similarly result in EELP (or any of its applicable subsidiaries or other entities in which EELP directly or indirectly invests) being required to pay or indirectly bear the economic burden of state or local taxes and associated interest, and penalties.

Under certain circumstances, EELP or an entity in which EELP directly or indirectly invests may be eligible to make an election to cause partners of EELP (or such other entity) to take into account the amount of any understatement, including any interest and penalties, in accordance with such partner’s share in EELP in the year under audit. We will decide whether or not to cause EELP to make this election; however, there are circumstances in which the election may not be available and, in the case of an entity in which EELP directly or indirectly invests, such decision may be outside of our control. If EELP or an entity in which EELP directly or indirectly invests does not make this election, the then-current partners of EELP could economically bear the burden of the understatement.

If EELP were to become a publicly traded partnership taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we and EELP might be subject to potentially significant tax inefficiencies, and we would not be able to recover payments previously made by us under the Tax Receivable Agreement, even if the corresponding tax benefits were subsequently determined to have been unavailable due to such status.

We intend to operate such that EELP does not become a publicly traded partnership taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes. A “publicly traded partnership” is an entity that otherwise would be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the interests of which are traded on an established securities market or readily tradable on a secondary market or the substantial equivalent thereof. Under certain circumstances, exchanges of EELP interests pursuant to the EELP Limited Partnership Agreement or other transfers of EELP interests could cause EELP to be treated like a publicly traded partnership. From time to time, the U.S. Congress has considered legislation to change the tax treatment of partnerships and there can be no assurance that any such legislation will not be enacted or if enacted will not be adverse to us.

If EELP were to become a publicly traded partnership taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, significant tax inefficiencies might result for us and EELP, including as a result of our inability to file a consolidated U.S. federal income tax return with EELP. In addition, we may not be able to realize tax benefits covered under the Tax Receivable Agreement and would not be able

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to recover any payments previously made by us under the Tax Receivable Agreement, even if the corresponding tax benefits (including any claimed increase in the tax basis of EELP’s assets) were subsequently determined to have been unavailable.

Future changes to tax laws or applicable tax rates in the jurisdictions where we operate could materially and adversely affect our company and reduce net returns to our stockholders.

Our tax treatment is subject to the enactment of, or changes in, tax laws, regulations and treaties, or the interpretation thereof, tax policy initiatives and reforms under consideration and the practices of tax authorities in various jurisdictions. Such changes may include (but are not limited to) the taxation of operating income, investment income, dividends received or (in the specific context of withholding tax) dividends paid, or the taxation of partnerships and other pass-through entities. As a result, the tax laws in the United States and in jurisdictions in which we do business could change on a prospective or retroactive basis, and any such changes could have an adverse effect on our worldwide tax liabilities, business, financial condition and results of operations. We are unable to predict what tax reform may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effect such changes would have on our business, but such changes, to the extent they are brought into tax legislation, regulations, policies or practices, could affect our financial position and overall or applicable tax rates in the future in countries where we have operations, reduce post-tax returns to our stockholders, and increase the complexity, burden and cost of tax compliance.

For example, The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”), which represents a coalition of member countries, issued various white papers addressing Tax Base Erosion and Jurisdictional Profit Shifting. The recommendations in these white papers are generally aimed at combating what they believe is tax avoidance. Numerous jurisdictions in which we operate have been influenced by these white papers as well as other factors and are increasingly active in evaluating changes to their tax laws. In addition, the OECD has advanced reforms focused on global profit allocation, and implementing a global minimum tax rate of at least 15% for large multinational corporations on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis, known as the “two pillar plan.” On October 8, 2021, the OECD announced an accord endorsing and providing an implementation plan for the two pillar plan agreed upon by 136 nations. On December 15, 2022, the European Council formally adopted a European Union directive on the implementation of the plan by January 1, 2024. While the implementation of the accord is uncertain, if legislation is enacted to implement the accord in some or all of the jurisdictions in which we have operations, it could materially increase the amount of taxes we owe, on a retroactive or prospective basis, thereby negatively affecting our results of operations and our cash flows from operations.

Our businesses are subject to income taxation in the United States and in various other jurisdictions. Applicable tax rates may be subject to significant change. If our effective tax rate increases, our operating results and cash flow could be adversely affected. Our effective income tax rate can vary significantly between periods due to a number of complex factors including, but not limited to, projected levels of taxable income in each jurisdiction, tax audits conducted and settled by various tax authorities, and adjustments to income taxes upon finalization of income tax returns.

We depend on key management personnel and other experienced employees.

Our success depends to a significant degree upon the contributions of certain key management personnel, including, but not limited to, Steven Kobos, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Kobos does not have an employment agreement with us, and there is no guarantee that he will remain employed by us. Our ability to retain our key management personnel or to attract suitable replacements should any members of our management team leave is dependent on the competitive nature of the employment market. The loss of services from key management personnel or a limitation in their availability could materially and adversely impact our business, prospects, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations. Further, such a loss could be negatively perceived in the capital markets. We have not obtained key man life insurance that would provide us with proceeds in the event of the death or disability of any of our key management personnel.

Experienced employees in the LNG industry are fundamental to our ability to generate, obtain and manage opportunities and are also highly sought after. Failure to attract and retain such personnel or to ensure that their experience and knowledge is not lost when they leave the business through retirement, redundancy or otherwise may adversely affect the standards of our service and may have an adverse impact on our business, prospects, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock

An active, liquid and orderly trading market for our Class A Common Stock may not develop or be maintained, and our stock price may be volatile.

Prior to our IPO, there was no public market for our Class A Common Stock. Although our Class A Common Stock is now listed on the NYSE under the symbol “EE,” an active trading market for our shares may not be sustained. A public trading market having the desirable characteristics of depth, liquidity and orderliness depends upon the existence of willing buyers and sellers at any given time, and its existence is dependent upon the individual decisions of buyers and sellers over which neither we nor any market maker has control. The failure of an active and liquid trading market to continue would likely have a material adverse effect on the value of our

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Class A Common Stock. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund operations by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration.

The market price of our Class A Common Stock could vary significantly as a result of a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control. In the event of a drop in the market price of our Class A Common Stock, investors could lose a substantial part or all of their investment in our Class A Common Stock.

The following factors, among others, could affect our stock price:

The stock markets in general have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our Class A Common Stock. Securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the overall market and in the market price of a company’s securities. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in very substantial costs, divert our management’s attention and resources and harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Future offerings of securities may dilute the holdings of stockholders and could adversely affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock.

In the future, we may attempt to increase our capital resources by making offerings of debt securities or additional offerings of equity securities. Upon bankruptcy or liquidation, holders of debt securities and shares of preferred stock and lenders with respect to other borrowings will receive a distribution of our available assets prior to the holders of our Class A Common Stock. Additional equity offerings may dilute the holdings of our existing stockholders or reduce the market price of our Class A Common Stock, or both. Shares of preferred stock would have a preference on dividend payments, which could limit our ability to make a dividend distribution to the holders of our Class A Common Stock. Our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and

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other factors beyond our control. As a result, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of our future offerings, and stockholders bear the risk of our future offerings reducing the market price of our Class A Common Stock and diluting their ownership interest in our company.

Kaiser has the ability to direct the voting of a majority of the voting power of our common stock, and his interests may conflict with those of our other stockholders.

Our common stock consists of two classes: Class A and Class B. Holders of Class A Common Stock and Class B common stock are entitled to one vote per share. Holders of Class A Common Stock and Class B common stock will vote together as a single class on all matters presented to our stockholders for their vote or approval, except as otherwise required by our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or by applicable law. Kaiser, through his ownership of EE Holdings, indirectly owns 100% of our Class B common stock (representing 75.8% of the total combined voting power of our Class A Common Stock and Class B common stock).

As a result, Kaiser, through his ownership of EE Holdings, has the right to designate a certain number of nominees for election to our board of directors and is able to control matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors, changes to our organizational documents, any material change in the nature of the business or operations of our company and our subsidiaries, taken as a whole, as of the date of the Stockholder’s Agreement (as defined herein), and significant corporate transactions, including any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets for so long as EE Holdings beneficially owns (directly or indirectly) a certain percentage of our outstanding voting power. For more information on Kaiser’s rights, through his ownership of EE Holdings, with respect to designating a certain number of nominees to our board of directors and consenting to certain significant actions. This concentration of ownership makes it unlikely that any holder or group of holders of our Class A Common Stock will be able to affect the way we are managed or the direction of our business. The interests of Kaiser with respect to matters potentially or actually involving or affecting us, such as future acquisitions, financings and other corporate opportunities and attempts to acquire us, may conflict with the interests of our other stockholders. The existence of such a significant stockholder may have the effect of deterring hostile takeovers, delaying or preventing changes in control or changes in management or limiting the ability of our other stockholders to approve transactions that they may deem to be in our best interests. Kaiser’s concentration of stock ownership may also adversely affect the trading price of our Class A Common Stock to the extent investors perceive a disadvantage in owning stock of a company with significant stockholders.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation includes an exclusive forum clause, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or agents.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we, in writing, select or consent to the selection of an alternative forum, all complaints asserting any internal corporate claims (defined as claims, including claims in the right of our company: (i) that are based upon a violation of a duty by a current or former director, officer, employee, or stockholder in such capacity; or (ii) as to which the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) confers jurisdiction upon the Court of Chancery), to the fullest extent permitted by law, and subject to applicable jurisdictional requirements, shall be the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have, or declines to accept, subject matter jurisdiction, another state court or a federal court located within the State of Delaware). Further, unless we select or consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Our choice-of-forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act, and investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. These choice-of-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and such persons. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock is deemed to have notice of and consented to the foregoing provisions.

We cannot assure you that we will pay dividends on our Class A Common Stock, and our indebtedness could limit our ability to pay future dividends on our Class A Common Stock.

We declared and paid cash dividends on our Class A Common Stock in the prior fiscal year. Any determination to pay dividends to holders of our Class A Common Stock in the future will be subject to applicable law, the terms of any applicable governing documents and agreements and at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon many factors, including our financial condition, results of operations, projections, liquidity, earnings, legal requirements, covenant compliance, restrictions in our existing and any future debt agreements and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. Our financing arrangements, including the Amended Credit Agreement, place certain direct and indirect restrictions on our ability to pay cash dividends. Therefore, there can be no assurance that we will pay any dividends to holders of our Class A Common Stock or as to the amount of any such dividends, and we may cease such payments at any time in the future. In addition, our historical results of operations, including cash flow, are not indicative of future

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financial performance, and our actual results of operations could differ significantly from our historical results of operations. We have not adopted, and do not currently expect to adopt, a separate written dividend policy.

Sales of substantial amounts of our Class A Common Stock in the public markets, or the perception that they might occur, could cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to drop significantly.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A Common Stock in the public market could occur at any time. Sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock. We may also issue our shares of Class A Common Stock or securities convertible into shares of our Class A Common Stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investment or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to decline. We have also filed a Form S-8 under the Securities Act to register all shares of Class A Common Stock that we may issue under our equity compensation plans.

Pursuant to a Registration Rights Agreement that we entered into with EE Holdings and the Foundation, EE Holdings and the Foundation have rights to require us to file registration statements covering the sale of an aggregate of 89,875,556 shares of our Class A Common Stock, which consist of (i) Class A Common Stock issuable to EE Holdings upon exchange of its corresponding Class B interests of EELP and (ii) Class A Common Stock held by the Foundation, or to include such shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. Once we register these shares, they can be freely resold in the public market, subject to legal or contractual restrictions. Such sales could adversely affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock.

Provisions in our governing documents and under Delaware law, as well as Kaiser’s indirect beneficial ownership of all of our outstanding Class B common stock, could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management, and may adversely affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock.

Some provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us, even if the change in control would be beneficial to our stockholders. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to elect directors that are not nominated by the current members of our board of directors or take other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. Among other things, these provisions include:

In addition, Section 203 of the DGCL prohibits a publicly held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. An interested stockholder includes a person, individually or together with any other interested stockholder, who within the last three years has owned 15% of our voting stock. Although we will opt out of Section 203, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will contain provisions that have the same effect as Section 203, except that they will provide that Kaiser and his successors (other than our company), as well as their direct and indirect transferees, will not be deemed to be “interested stockholders,” regardless of the percentage of our voting stock owned by them, and accordingly will not be subject to such restrictions.

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Kaiser, through his indirect beneficial ownership of all of our outstanding Class B common stock, controls approximately 75.8% of the total combined voting power of our outstanding Class A Common Stock and Class B common stock, which gives him the ability to prevent a potential takeover of our company. If a change in control or change in management is delayed or prevented, the market price of our Class A Common Stock could decline.

We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE rules and, as a result, rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.

Kaiser indirectly beneficially owns a majority of our voting power for the election of our directors. As a result, we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE corporate governance standards. Under the NYSE rules, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power with respect to director elections is held by another person or group of persons acting together is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain NYSE corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:

These requirements will not apply to us as long as we remain a controlled company. We rely on all of the controlled company exemptions and are required to do so under the Stockholder's Agreement that we entered into with EE Holdings (the “Stockholder’s Agreement”) for so long as we remain a controlled company and EE Holdings holds director designation rights pursuant to the Stockholder's Agreement. Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the NYSE corporate governance requirements.

If we fail to meet the expectations of analysts or investors, our share price could decline substantially.

In some quarters, our results may be below analysts’ or investors’ expectations. If this occurs, the price of our Class A Common Stock could decline. Important factors that could cause our revenue and operating results to fluctuate from quarter to quarter include, but are not limited to:

Most of these factors are not within our control, and the occurrence of one or more of them may cause our operating results to vary widely.