If you’ve searched for TELL stock recently and found nothing, or stumbled across old headlines about Driftwood LNG and wondered what happened to the company, you’re not alone. The answer isn’t a simple yes or no — and a lot of people have the wrong idea about what actually took place.
Tellurian didn’t go bankrupt. It didn’t lock its doors or liquidate its assets. What happened was something different: a buyout. This article explains exactly what that means for the company, its stock, its shareholders, and the future of its projects.
Tellurian Did Not Go Bankrupt — But It No Longer Exists as a Public Company
Let’s clear this up right away. Tellurian did not file for bankruptcy. There was no court-supervised liquidation, no fire sale of assets to pay off creditors. The company’s operations didn’t just stop.
What happened is this: in July 2024, Woodside Energy agreed to acquire Tellurian in an all-cash deal at $1.00 per share. The deal was valued at roughly $900 million in equity and about $1.2 billion in total enterprise value. Both boards approved it unanimously. The merger closed in October 2024, and after that, TELL was delisted and stopped trading entirely.
So when people ask “is Tellurian going out of business,” it depends on what you mean. For public investors, the stock is gone. For the actual assets — the LNG project, the pipelines, the upstream gas positions — those continue. They’re just owned by Woodside now instead of Tellurian.
Think of it this way: a local hardware store going out of business means the shelves are empty, the keys are handed over, and it’s done. But if a national chain buys that store, the building still operates — it just has a different name on the sign. Tellurian is the second scenario, not the first.
A Brief History of Tellurian and How It Got Here
Tellurian was founded in 2016 in Houston by Charif Souki and Martin Houston. Souki had previously founded Cheniere Energy, which became the first U.S. company to export LNG at commercial scale. That background gave Tellurian a lot of early credibility.
The core idea behind Tellurian was an integrated model — the company would combine upstream natural gas production, pipeline assets, and a large LNG export terminal called Driftwood LNG in Louisiana. The pitch was that owning the whole chain would make the economics more attractive for buyers and investors alike.
For a few years, it generated real excitement. TELL attracted retail investors, preliminary agreements with major energy players, and significant media coverage. But the model depended heavily on getting Driftwood LNG built, and that required tens of billions in capital.
The turning point came in 2022. Both Shell and Vitol terminated their LNG supply agreements with Tellurian, removing two major offtake commitments. Without firm, long-term buyers lined up, project financing became nearly impossible to secure. The stock dropped sharply, and confidence in the company’s path forward took a serious hit.
Rising interest rates made things worse. Other U.S. LNG projects were competing for the same pool of capital and buyers. Tellurian kept missing its targets for a Final Investment Decision on Driftwood LNG, and the delays kept piling up.
Then in December 2023, Charif Souki was dismissed as executive chairman after an internal investigation found he had engaged in undisclosed personal dealmaking. Losing a co-founder and key figure in that way added another layer of uncertainty. By mid-2024, the company was in a position where selling to a larger, better-capitalized buyer made more sense than continuing to fight for financing as an independent company.
What Happened to TELL Stock
TELL had always been a volatile stock. Its price moved based on news about Driftwood LNG — financing updates, contract announcements, management changes. At various points between 2018 and 2022, the stock traded significantly higher than where it eventually landed.
When Woodside announced the $1.00 per share acquisition in July 2024, that price became the effective ceiling. The stock traded close to that level as the market waited for regulatory and shareholder approvals. There was nothing left to speculate on — the deal was set.
After shareholders approved the merger and regulatory requirements were met, the deal closed in October 2024. All public shareholders received $1.00 per share in cash. After that, TELL stopped trading and was formally delisted.
For many retail investors, the outcome was painful. Someone who bought TELL at $4.00 per share in 2021 — which was a realistic entry point during periods of enthusiasm around Driftwood LNG — walked away with a 75% loss per share. Not because the underlying assets had zero value, but because years of financing delays, lost contracts, and management problems eroded the equity value before Woodside stepped in.
If you open a brokerage account today and search for TELL, you won’t find it. That’s not a glitch or a suspension. The stock no longer exists because the company was acquired and taken off the exchange. That’s different from a stock going to zero in a bankruptcy — but the practical result for investors who held at higher prices is still a significant loss.
What the Woodside Acquisition Means for Driftwood LNG
One of the most common follow-up questions is whether this means Driftwood LNG is dead. The short answer is: not necessarily, but its future now depends entirely on Woodside’s decisions.
Driftwood LNG was one of the main reasons Woodside wanted Tellurian in the first place. Along with Tellurian’s pipeline infrastructure and upstream gas positions, Driftwood fits into Woodside’s broader U.S. LNG growth strategy. The project isn’t canceled just because Tellurian’s ticker disappeared.
A useful way to think about it: Tellurian was essentially a holding structure for these assets. Woodside bought that structure and transferred the contents — the LNG project, the permits, the land, the gas positions — into its own portfolio. The original shell is gone, but the contents are being re-evaluated under new ownership.
What Woodside actually does with Driftwood LNG — whether it pushes toward a final investment decision, redesigns the project, or deprioritizes it in favor of other opportunities — isn’t fully public at this point. It would be misleading to say the project is definitely moving forward, just as it would be misleading to say it’s been canceled. The honest answer is that it’s now Woodside’s call to make.
What This Means If You’re an Investor or Just Following the Story
If you held TELL shares at the time the deal closed, you received $1.00 per share in cash. You no longer have any equity stake in Tellurian or any claim on the Driftwood LNG project. That ended at closing.
If you see references to TELL online — in forums, old articles, or brokerage watchlists — treat them as historical. The stock doesn’t trade anywhere, including OTC or pink sheets in any meaningful sense tied to the original company. Be cautious of any claim suggesting you still have rights tied to old TELL shares or that there’s some recovery process underway. All public shareholders were cashed out through the merger.
For anyone researching this as a business or investment case study, the Tellurian story carries some real lessons. Project finance risk is serious and often underestimated. A compelling idea — like an integrated U.S. LNG model — isn’t enough on its own if the capital structure and offtake agreements don’t come together. And management credibility matters. The loss of Shell and Vitol as customers, followed by the dismissal of the co-founder under an investigation, significantly damaged investor confidence at critical moments.
If you’re tracking broader energy sector developments, resources like Start Business Media can help you follow business and market stories with the same kind of straightforward context.
The Bottom Line
Tellurian did not go bankrupt. It was acquired by Woodside Energy in a deal that closed in October 2024. The public company and its stock no longer exist, but the assets — including Driftwood LNG — are now part of Woodside’s portfolio.
For shareholders, the outcome was a cash payout of $1.00 per share, which represented a significant loss for many who had bought in at higher prices over the years. That loss came from a combination of failed financing attempts, canceled supply agreements, and governance problems — not from a sudden collapse or fraud.
The Tellurian name is essentially gone. The LNG ambitions it represented are now in Woodside’s hands. Whether those ambitions become a real project depends on decisions that haven’t been made public yet.
Read Also:
