International
Cheniere takes two LNG units at Louisiana terminal offline for maintenance
Houston — Feedgas deliveries to Cheniere Energy’s two LNG export terminals fell sharply over the weekend and into Monday, as scheduled maintenance shut down two of the five liquefaction trains at the Louisiana facility and commissioning continued on one of the two production units at the Texas facility. Register Now The market closely watches Cheniere, the biggest US exporter of LNG and individual consumer of pipeline-ready natural gas, for shifts in the utilization of its Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi terminals, as well as for its efforts to increase capacity by bringing additional trains online or proposing the development of new ones. Trains 3 and 4 at Sabine Pass were taken offline for scheduled turnarounds as part of Cheniere’s maintenance plan for the facility, spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said in an email responding to questions. The turnarounds were expected to last a similar length of time to when Cheniere conducted maintenance on Trains 1 and 2 in late March and early April, he said. That work lasted about 3 1/2 weeks. Besides the turnarounds at the terminal, scheduled maintenance was being conducted along Cheniere’s Creole Trail Pipeline at its Gillis Compressor Station. That work began Monday and was expected to extend through August 13, a notice to customers said. The maintenance reduced maximum operating capacity for the pipeline by more than 50%, also affecting feedgas deliveries to Sabine Pass.At the Texas liquefaction facility, meanwhile, Cheniere was continuing to commission Train 2, Burnham-Snyder said. Feedgas flows often fluctuate significantly during the latter stages of commissioning before the start of commercial service under long-term offtake agreements. Month to date, feedgas deliveries to Sabine Pass have declined about 0.7 Bcf/d from July averages of 3.6 Bcf/d, to current levels of 2.9 Bcf/d, S&P Global Platts Analytics data showed. Flows to the terminal were at about 2.2 Bcf/d on Monday, down 41% from August 1 levels.Similarly, Corpus Christi feedgas demand dropped about 0.2 Bcf/d from July averages to about 1.0 Bcf/d for August. Flows to the Texas facility registered 799 MMcf/d Monday, down 43% from August 1 levels.As for Creole Trail, total throughput volumes on the pipeline were reduced to 0.6 Bcf/d Monday from last month’s average of 1.1 Bcf/d, Platts Analytics data showed. Total operating capacity at Gillis, which services other pipelines, too, is 2.6 Bcf/d, but that was reduced to about 0.8 Bcf/d because of the compressor station maintenance.Cheniere, based in Houston, has five trains at Sabine Pass and is building a sixth. It has two trains at the facility near Corpus Christi and is building a third there. A midscale liquefaction expansion is also planned at the site of the Texas facility.