They include five in China, two in southeast Asia and one in Europe, said Vivek Chandra, chief executive of Houston-based Texas LNG, declining to name the companies citing confidentiality reasons.

The Chinese customers are a mix of large provincials, independent companies and small local governments, he said, speaking on the sidelines of the LNG Asia Pacific Congress in Singapore.

"In Southeast Asia, one is with one of the state national gas companies and the other one is more of an entrepreneurial project of developing an integrated gas to power scheme," he added.

The Texas LNG export facility in Brownsville, in southern Texas, has a capacity of up to 4 million tonnes per year (tpy) and is being built in two phases of 2 million tpy each.

The first phase is expected to begin production in 2023.

"Out of the eight (companies we have signed the deals with), six of them have LNG terminals today," he said.

The company is currently getting ready for detailed engineering and expects to make a final investment decision next year.

The company is offering a flexible tolling fee at its facility where it will be paid a fee to convert natural gas into LNG by the LNG customer.