Liquefied natural gas exports are one of the hottest topics in the oil and gas industry today. With the US shale gale having knocked down natural gas prices to uneconomic levels for many plays, exports offer domestic operators the prospect of accessing higher prices for their product internationally.

Shaw Ottis knows the LNG export scene intimately. For the past several years he's been senior counsel at Freeport LNG, which is, along with Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass facility, one of the projects furthest along in obtaining approval to begin construction of liquefaction export capacity—as soon as this summer.

Ottis grew up in Bay City, Texas, in the heart of the region that will reap economic benefits from LNG exports. His family owns and operates rice farms there, where Ottis hunted and fished as a youth.

He majored in chemical engineering at Texas A&M, and after graduating in 2000, joined Conoco's midstream group, working on process and project engineering projects for gas gathering and processing systems along the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

When Conoco and Phillips merged, he entered the University of Houston Law Center, graduating in 2005. He planned to specialize in intellectual property law but found himself nodding off in class for the first time in his life. He decided to focus on energy courses and become a transactional lawyer.

He joined King & Spalding's global transactions group practice after law school where he stayed for five years, before a brief stint with Nabors Industries. Then the call came from Freeport LNG's general counsel, with whom he'd worked on past deals. Sensing it was a unique time and opportunity to put his expertise in project development to work, he joined the company in 2011.

In a recent interview, Shaw discussed the mega-financings supporting LNG export and his role.

Investor Your years at King & Spalding gave you unique experience in the LNG niche. How?

Ottis In the construction practice group, we worked hand in hand with project finance and development. I was mentored by terrific attorneys at the firm and worked almost exclusively on nonrecourse project finance developments for infrastructure projects.

Nonrecourse project finance is, in some ways, like working without a net—there is no collateral other than the project's creditworthy customers, business model and projected financials. These developments require robust engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, and I became an expert in those.

Investor The LNG market reversed from import to export fairly quickly.

Ottis Yes. The law firm had a leading market position working with LNG import projects. Then shale gas occurred. But from 2005 to 2008, the import side was a great business, and I worked on the Freeport LNG facilities, Cheniere's Sabine Pass and others. Joining Freeport was like the stars aligned: to be able to build a project from the ground up and stay on to grow my career within the company.

Investor What's your focus today?

Ottis Most of my time is spent on contracts and permitting for the liquefaction facilities. It's going fast. Freeport LNG was the second entity to get authorization from the Department of Energy to export LNG to non-free trade countries, so we are working hard to benefit from being early in the queue.

Investor What is the time frame?

Ottis We have customers for all three trains. We have DOE permits—the authorization to export—and we're working on the remaining environmental-related permits. The FERC permit gives you the authority to construct. FERC issued a scheduling notice to us in early January that put us on a schedule to receive a final environmental impact statement by June 16. We plan to finish the first train construction in four years, around August 2018.

Investor What about financing?

Ottis Financing of just the first two trains is one of the largest nonrecourse financings in the world—with debt and equity combined, more than $9 billion. All three trains combined could be more than $13 billion. We hope to close the financing on the first two trains in the third quarter of 2014.

Investor Is there much risk?

Ottis Under the tolling agreements with our customers, if we provide the service, they will pay the fee. One of the main risks is managing the project well through construction, and having a good EPC contract—it better be good, because I drafted it!

Investor What do you enjoy most about your job?

Ottis I enjoy being part of such a large project, but, at the same time, working with a small team of about 35 people in the company pulling it off. Of course, there are outside consultants that provide a lot of support.

Also, this project will have a profound, positive impact on the Gulf Coast and Texas. It's about 30 miles away from my hometown, so for me, it's personal. Construction alone could infuse $5- to $7 billion of capital directly into the community—and that's just the EPC and related capital costs. Studies we've done show our project could support up to 20,000 jobs just in oil and gas because of the incremental natural gas needed.

—Susan Klann