Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation (Policies)

v3.21.2
Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation (Policies)
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Basis of Presentation, Policy Basis of PresentationThe accompanying unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements of Cheniere have been prepared in accordance with GAAP for interim financial information and with Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes included in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
Recent Accounting Standards
Recent Accounting Standards

In August 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2020-06, Debt—Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging—Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity. This guidance simplifies the accounting for convertible instruments primarily by eliminating the existing cash conversion and beneficial conversion models within Subtopic 470-20, which will result in fewer embedded conversion options being accounted for separately from the debt host. The guidance also amends and simplifies the calculation of earnings per share relating to convertible instruments. This guidance is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2021, including interim periods within that reporting period, with earlier adoption permitted for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020, including interim periods within that reporting period, using either a full or modified retrospective approach. We plan to adopt
this guidance on January 1, 2022 using the modified retrospective approach. Preliminarily, we anticipate the adoption of ASU 2020-06 will primarily result in the reclassification of the previously bifurcated equity component associated with the 4.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2045 (the “2045 Cheniere Convertible Senior Notes”) to debt as a result of the elimination of the cash conversion model. We currently estimate that the reclassification of the $194 million equity component will result in an approximate $190 million increase in the carrying value of our 2045 Cheniere Convertible Senior Notes, with the difference primarily impacting retained earnings as of January 1, 2022. We continue to evaluate the impact of the provisions of this guidance on our Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures. See Note 9—Debt for further discussion on the 2045 Cheniere Convertible Senior Notes.

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting. This guidance primarily provides temporary optional expedients which simplify the accounting for contract modifications to existing contracts expected to arise from the market transition from LIBOR to alternative reference rates. We have various credit facilities and interest rate swaps indexed to LIBOR, as further described in Note 6—Derivative Instruments and Note 9—Debt. The optional expedients were available to be used upon issuance of this guidance but we have not yet applied the guidance because we have not yet modified any of our existing contracts for reference rate reform. Once we apply an optional expedient to a modified contract and adopt this standard, the guidance will be applied to all subsequent applicable contract modifications until December 31, 2022, at which time the optional expedients are no longer available.