US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports rose in the week ending February 8 while the Henry Hub spot price dropped when compared to the week before, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The EIA said in its weekly natural gas report that 24 LNG carriers departed the US plants between February 2 and February 8, four shipments more when compared to the week before.
According to the agency, the total capacity of LNG vessels carrying these cargoes is 90 Bcf.
Overall natural gas deliveries to US LNG export terminals decreased by 1.5 percent or 0.2 Bcf/d week over week to 12.5 Bcf/d.
Feed gas deliveries to terminals in South Louisiana fell by 1.5 percent or 0.1 Bcf/d to 8.8 Bcf/d, while feed gas deliveries to East Coast terminals fell 8.5 percent or 0.1 Bcf/d to 1.1 Bcf/d over the same period.
Deliveries to all other terminals were essentially flat, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant shipped ten cargoes and its Corpus Christi facility sent five shipments during the week under review.
Sempra’s Cameron LNG sent four shipments while Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG plant and the Cove Point facility each dispatched two cargoes, the EIA said, citing shipping data by Bloomberg Finance.
Elba Island also shipped one cargo during the week under review.
Freeport LNG restart
Freeport LNG is currently restarting the export plant following an incident at the facility that took place on June 8 last year.
The operator of the LNG terminal won approval from the US FERC to start introducing natural gas into the third liquefaction train at its three-train 15 mtpa liquefaction plant as part of the restart process.
Freeport LNG also won approval from FERC to load LNG ships from its Dock 1 LNG berth.
Henry Hub drops to $2.42/MMBtu
This report week, the Henry Hub spot price fell 24 cents from $2.66 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $2.42/MMBtu this Wednesday, the agency said.
Moreover, the price of the March 2023 NYMEX contract decreased 7.2 cents, from $2.468/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.396/MMBtu this Wednesday, the agency said.
The price of the 12-month strip averaging March 2023 through February 2024 futures contracts declined 7.2 cents to $3.196/MMBtu.
TTF down
The agency said that international natural gas futures prices were down this report week.
Bloomberg Finance reported that weekly average front-month futures prices for LNG cargoes in East Asia decreased $1.13 to a weekly average of $18.30/MMBtu.
Natural gas futures for delivery at the Dutch TTF decreased 21 cents to a weekly average of $17.83/MMBtu.
In the same week last year (week ending February 9, 2022), the prices in East Asia and at TTF were $24.96/MMBtu and $26.44/MMBtu, respectively, the agency said.