EIA: Cheniere ships four Sabine Pass LNG cargoes, Henry Hub slightly down

Natural gas spot prices in the U.S. were mixed in most locations in the week ending March 22 with the Henry Hub price dropping slightly from last Wednesday.

The Henry Hub spot price dropped from $3.00/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.98/MMBtu two days ago, according to the weekly report by the Energy Information Administration released on Thursday.

At the Chicago Citygate, prices decreased 4¢ from $2.93/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.89/MMBtu two days ago while prices at PG&E Citygate in Northern California gained 4¢ to $3.19/MMBtu.

Sabine Pass ships four cargoes

Natural gas pipeline flows to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass liquefaction terminal in Louisiana averaged 2.2 Bcf/d for the report week, 8% higher than the previous week.

Four vessels with a total LNG-carrying capacity of 13.9 billion cubic feet (Bcf) departed Sabine Pass last week, and one vessel with a capacity of 3.8 Bcf was loading at the terminal, EIA said in the report.

Last week, Cheniere Energy received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to commence liquefaction and export activities from Train 3.

The Houston-based company also filed a request with FERC to begin commissioning of Train 4.

Once the fourth train at Sabine Pass becomes operational, the total baseload nameplate capacity of the facility will reach 2.6 Bcf/d, with a maximum operating capacity of 2.9 Bcf/d, EIA noted in the report.

The fifth train at the Sabine Pass facility, currently under construction, is expected to begin service in mid-2019.

Cheniere is developing up to six trains at Sabine Pass with each train expected to have a nominal production capacity of approximately 4.5 million tons per annum.