US LNG Weekly: Corpus Christi USGC plant to restart loading cargoes post hurricane

Houston — Corpus Christi has been the only of the four US Gulf Coast-based facilities to recommence cargo loading since they were halted last week on the approach of Hurricane Laura, according to data from cFlow, Platts trade-flow software.

The Texas-based plant began loading cargoes again just two days after the hurricane made landfall farther north in the USGC, along the Texas-Louisiana border.

The first cargo was loaded onto the Sohshu Maru Aug. 29, with another cargo subsequently beginning loading onto the Golar Arctic Aug. 30. Another tanker, the Gaslog Shanghai, began loading Aug. 31 and was still in port at the time of writing.

Prior to these loadings at Corpus Christi, the last vessel to complete loading from any USGC export facility did so Aug. 23, before the arrival of the hurricane.

At the time of writing, there were seven unladen tankers either in a holding pattern or entering the gulf.

Sabine Pass, Cameron LNG still not taking feedgas

As the backlog of unladen tankers begins to accumulate in the Gulf, two of the largest US export facilities, Sabine Pass, and Corpus Christi, were still not pulling feedgas. These two facilities were the most directly impacted by the hurricane.

Aggregate US feedgas utilization has since fallen to below 3 Bcf/day, compare to an average of around 4.5 Bcf/d earlier in the month.

Cheniere, the operator of the Sabine Pass export facility, said in a statement Monday that it has begun the process to restore operations. Meanwhile, Sempra, the operator of Cameron LNG, said that no serious wind damage was discovered during an initial evaluation, but did not give a timeline for its restart.

Cheniere's second facility, located on the Texas coast, meanwhile, has roughly doubled the volume of feedgas that it has been taking since mid-August. Several trading sources have said this is likely to compensate for some of the lost production from Sabine Pass.

During most of August, the facility loaded a cargo roughly every eight days. Since Sabine Pass was brought online, the facility has loaded two cargoes over the space of four days, and with another tanker currently loading, and another in a holding pattern just off the Texas coast.

USGC-loading cargo spot value continued to rally

The value of USGC-sourced cargoes continued to rally this week, with the new front-month of October being assessed at $3.60/MMBtu, the highest level yet seen for 2020. The bullish sentiment was driven primarily by strong gains in the European gas market.

Hurricane Laura was widely expected to have little pricing impact, as committed volumes were ultimately expected to hit the water without inordinate delays.

The Platts GCM for September-loading cargoes, meanwhile, was last assessed at $3.125/MMBtu, more than 45 cents above the equivalent NYMEX Henry Hub futures contract.