US LNG exports drop for second week running

Houston-based liquefied natural gas export player, Cheniere, saw a decrease in the number of cargoes of LNG exported from its Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana over the past week.

Currently, the only such a facility to export US shale gas overseas, loaded three LNG carriers with a total carrying capacity of 11.5 Bcf, during the week ending February 21.

This compares to five LNG carriers shipped in the previous week, the data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows.

One tanker with an LNG-carrying capacity of 3.5 Bcf was loading at the terminal on Wednesday.

Natural gas pipeline deliveries to the Sabine Pass terminal were down over the report week, averaging 2.2 Bcf/d, 1 Bcf/d or 33 percent lower than in the previous week. No tankers departed from Sabine Pass for most of the report week, February 14 – February 19.

To remind, on February 8, U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) instructed Cheniere to remove from service two of five LNG storage tanks at its Sabine Pass terminal following a gas leak last month.

Despite the decline in loadings and the tanks being out of service, Cheniere does not expect the removal of the storage tanks from service to affect the export levels.