Sabine Pass Sees Record LNG Flows

Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana is seeing record flows amid a push to send U.S. liquefied natural gas cargoes to energy-starved Europe. 

Natural gas flows to the LNG plant hit a record 5.1 billion cubic feet per day on both Thursday and Friday, estimates from BloombergNEF show. 

The higher gas flows reflect a capacity boost from Train 6, the terminal’s newest production unit, which is still undergoing the commissioning process. But they also demonstrate how the company is seizing an opportunity to cash in on the large gap between U.S. and European natural gas prices, said David Seduski, an LNG industry analyst at Energy Aspects. 

Natural gas sold on the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark is trading around $3.94 per million British thermal units, while gas on Europe’s TTF hub is topping $26. Equipped with two loading docks, the Sabine Pass terminal has seen at least half a dozen double tanker bookings so far this year. That’s one more than at the same time a year ago.

“The double-bookings at Cheniere are more of a symptom of everything else,” Seduski said. “Sabine Pass wants to load up as many cargoes as possible and rake in the money from the open arbitrage. Since they have two ship berths and additional capacity from the sixth train, they can load two cargoes on some days and not dip too heavily into onsite inventories.”