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Even with one facility closed, U.S. LNG exports improve

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Exports of super-cooled natural gas are holding up for the United States despite the fact that one processing plant has been closed since June. Photo courtesy of Q-LNG

Exports of super-cooled natural gas are holding up for the United States despite the fact that one processing plant has been closed since June. Photo courtesy of Q-LNG

Dec. 16 (UPI) — Even though the United States is down one export facility, federal data show that total LNG deliveries have improved from week-ago levels.

Natural gas deliveries from inland shale basins to U.S. LNG export terminals increased by 4% from week-ago levels to 12.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) on average. Most of the added volume went to terminals in Louisiana, such as Sempra Energy’s facility in Cameron County, La.

The Sabine Pass terminal in Texas, however, was the busiest one last week, with nine vessels laden with LNG departing for foreign shores. Cameron sent out five, while four left from Corpus Christi, three departed Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana and two sailed from the Cove Point facility off Maryland.

Combined, those 23 vessels were carrying 86 billion cubic feet of gas in liquid form. Last week, volumes were closer to 85 billion cubic feet and gas deliveries to U.S. export terminals averaged 11.8 Bcf/d.

U.S.-sourced LNG has helped Europe in particular deal with supply-side shortages stemming from the war in Ukraine. Russia was a major natural gas provider to Europe before the war, though recent analysis from consultant group Wood Mackenzie found that alternate supplies from producers such as the United States and Norway are filling the void.

Several major European economies such as Germany are taking steps to build up the infrastructure necessary to take in more LNG and deliver it in its gaseous form to end users.

The United States, meanwhile, is down one export terminal. The Freeport LNG terminal in Texas has been closed since a June explosion.

Freeport is the second-largest facility of its kind in the United States, with a natural gas processing capacity of 2 Bcf/d. The plant’s operators said the facility could resume activity by mid-December, though federal regulators said Monday they had additional questions before sanctioning the restart.

The resumption of Freeport operations should help the United States set a record in terms of LNG exports as early as March, federal data show.

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