Natural gas flows to Cheniere Energy Inc.'s Sabine Pass LNG export terminal dipped for the second month, after fog-related port closures temporarily affected the Louisiana facility's ability to load tankers.
Combined scheduled deliveries to the terminal from Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline LP, Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America LLC and Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC went as low as 1 Bcf on Feb. 17 after staying above 3 Bcf/d for the first half of the month, according to SNL Energy pipeline flow data. The overall amount of gas that flowed to the terminal during the short month came to 82 Bcf, just beating the January volume of 80.5 Bcf. The January volume is the lowest monthly level since September 2017, when a freeze cut water supply to the liquefaction terminal.
|
Cheniere CEO Jack Fusco on a Feb. 21 earnings call said "seasonal late winter fog" along the Gulf Coast had led to port closures that stopped ship traffic for roughly a week. He said the company plans ahead for weather events and had "opportunistically" planned maintenance to take place during that time.
"You should expect us to manage our infrastructure to maximize production over the year, which will help minimize any net LNG production impact from short duration events such as weather," Fusco said. "In general, we have accounted for seasonal weather events like this one to occur, and these events are factored into our guided range of 4.3 million to 4.6 million tonnes per annum of production [for each] train."
Earlier in February, federal regulators ordered Cheniere to remove from service two of five 3.4-Bcfe LNG storage tanks at Sabine Pass following an LNG leak from one and a vapor release from the second. Cheniere said at the time that LNG production had not been affected.
Sabine Pass used an average of nearly 80% of its total reserved gas transportation capacity on all three lines to the facility in February. The maximum capacity Creole Trail can provide to Sabine Pass is about 1.7 MMDth/d. NGPL can provide about 593,000 Dth/d, and Transco can provide 1.2 MMDth/d.
|
Sabine Pass is the first major U.S. LNG export terminal in the Lower 48. Dominion Energy Inc.'s Cove Point facility in Maryland exported its first commissioning cargo March 2.
To view operational statistics on interstate natural gas pipelines, go to SNL Energy's Pipeline Summary Page. To view natural gas operational flow data for receipt or delivery points, go to SNL Energy's Operational Capacity by Point Page.


