We are closely monitoring the impact of the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic on all aspects of our operations and development projects. While we did not incur significant disruptions during the three months ended March 31, 2020 from the COVID-19 pandemic, there are important uncertainties including the scope, severity and duration of the pandemic, the actions taken to contain the pandemic or mitigate its impact, and the direct and indirect economic effects of the pandemic and containment measures. Therefore, the effects of COVID-19 at this time are hard to predict. We do not currently expect these factors to have a significant impact on our results of operations, liquidity or financial position, or our development budgets or timelines. We primarily operate under long-term contracts with customers, many of which contain fixed minimum volumes that must be purchased on a “take-or-pay” basis, which has limited the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our current operations. Based on the essential nature of the services we provide to support power generation facilities, our development projects have not currently been significantly impacted by responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we are actively monitoring the spread of the pandemic and the actions that governments and regulatory agencies are taking to fight the spread.
Our operations are, and will be, dependent upon LNG being a competitive source of energy in the markets in which we operate. In the United States, due mainly to a historic abundant supply of natural gas and discoveries of substantial quantities of unconventional, or shale, natural gas, imported LNG has not developed into a significant energy source. The success of the domestic liquefaction component of our business plan is dependent, in part, on the extent to which natural gas can, for significant periods and in significant volumes, be produced in the United States at a lower cost than the cost to produce some domestic supplies of other alternative energy sources, and that it can be transported at reasonable rates through appropriately scaled infrastructure. The COVID‑19 pandemic and actions by OPEC have significantly impacted energy markets, and the price of oil has recently traded at historic low prices.