Gas flows to Dominion Energy Inc.'s Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG LP liquefied natural gas plant bounced back as the facility began a return to operation following a scheduled outage for maintenance and inspection activities.

The flows that fell off to nothing on Sept. 21 climbed back on Oct. 12, when scheduled gas volumes reached about 373 MMcf/d, S&P Global Market Intelligence pipeline flow data showed. Flows on Oct. 16 were about the same volume.

"The Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG terminal is completing its scheduled maintenance and inspection outage and returning to operation," Dominion spokesman Karl Neddenien said in an Oct. 16 email. He said Cove Point is scheduled to return to full LNG production levels by the end of the month.

The Cove Point downtime was in line with Dominion Energy's projection of about three weeks.

A tanker off the East Coast with a scheduled arrival on Oct. 18 was expected to be the first to load LNG at Cove Point since the end of the outage, S&P Global Platts reported, citing vessel tracking data and trade flow software.

Cove Point shipped its first cargo in March, becoming the second major LNG terminal operating in the Lower 48. Cheniere Energy Inc.'s larger Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana shipped its first cargo in early 2016. Cove Point has a single train capable of producing 5.25 million tonnes per annum, or roughly 0.8 Bcf/d.

In the months since the Maryland facility came online, Cove Point contributed to a rising swell of gas flows into U.S. export facilities. Shipments of LNG into world markets have been a driver of net gas exports from the country.

S&P Global Platts, like S&P Global Market Intelligence, is owned by S&P Global Inc.