Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG plant returns to normal
HOUSTON, July 20 (Reuters) — Cheniere Energy Inc’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility returned to normal processing levels on Thursday following an outage at one of its units on Tuesday, according to data provider Refinitiv.
Feedgas flowing to the largest U.S. LNG exporter’s Sabine Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana was on track to reach 4.3 billion cubic feet (bcf) on Thursday. That compares with an average of 4.2 bcfd over the past seven days and an average of 4.5 bcfd since the start of the year, Refinitiv data showed.
Cheniere declined to comment.
Refinitiv data showed feedgas flowing into the facility’s Train 4 on Tuesday had fallen by 400 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) since Monday.
Energy consultants Wood Mackenzie told clients six engines at the Train 4 facility went down on Tuesday, affecting gas intake.
U.S. natural gas futures jumped about 6% to a two-week high on Thursday on a smaller-than-expected storage build, a drop in daily output, forecasts for higher demand next week and hotter-than-normal weather through early August.
With hot weather expected to boost the amount of gas needed to produce electricity and rising feedgas to LNG export plants, Refinitiv forecast U.S. gas demand would hit 106.8 bcfd next week, up from 105.7 bcfd this week.
Sabine Pass Train 4 has a 4.5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) nameplate capacity that is contracted to GAIL (India) Ltd for a 20-year period. (Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston and Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)
Related Knowledge Center: Liquefied natural gas
Driven by plentiful natural gas produced from shale plays, the United States began exporting liquefied natural gas in 2016 when the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana opened and shipped its first cargo. Since then, additional capacity, or trains, have been added to Sabine Pass, and terminals have become operational in Cameron Parish, La.; Hackberry, La.; Cove Point, Md.; and Corpus Christi, Texas. The Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. LNG export capacity will reach 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by the end of 2019, making it the third largest in the world, behind Australia and Qatar. The tariff war with China has the potential to impact some final investment decisions for additional terminals in the coming months.