The US exported fever LNG cargoes in the week ending September 29, while the Henry Hub and the Asian spot prices rose.
The Energy Information Administration said in its weekly natural gas report that the US exported 17 LNG shipments between September 23 and September 29.
This compares to 21 LNG cargoes during the prior week.
Also, natural gas deliveries to US LNG export facilities averaged 10.1 Bcf/d, or 0.35 Bcf/d higher than last week.
Four US terminals exported the 17 cargoes during the week under review. The total capacity of LNG vessels carrying these cargoes is 63 Bcf, compared to 75 Bcf in the week before.
Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant dispatched five cargoes, while its Corpus Christi plant sent four shipments.
The Freeport LNG terminal also sent five cargoes and Cameron three.
Henry Hub up
This report week, the Henry Hub spot price rose from $4.83/MMBtu last Wednesday to $5.63/MMBtu two days ago, after reaching a weekly high of $5.93/MMBtu on Tuesday.
Gulf Coast natural gas markets remain tight. Lower power consumption in the region, as a result of cooler weather and reduced air conditioning demand, resulted in average weekly natural gas consumption for power generation declining by 910 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in Texas and by 890 MMcf/d in the Southeast, according to data from IHS Markit.
To a large extent, the reduced power generation demand was offset by increased feed gas deliveries to LNG export terminals.
IHS Markit reports LNG feed gas rose on average week over week, by 140 MMcf/d in Louisiana and 630 MMcf/d in Texas, reflecting a return to full capacity at the Freeport LNG terminal, which was idle for part of the last report week due to impacts of Hurricane Nicholas.
Spot LNG price, TTF continue to climb
Prices are continuing to rise all over the globe. Bloomberg Finance reported swap prices for November LNG cargoes in East Asia rose to a weekly average of $27.96/MMBtu this report week, the highest weekly average on record going back to January 2020 and $3.99/MMBtu above last week’s average of $23.98/MMBtu.
Platts also said that the JKM for November rose to $34.47/MMBtu on September 30. This is the highest level for the LNG benchmark for Asian spot LNG since Platts launched it in early 2009, it said.
At the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in the Netherlands, the most liquid European natural gas spot market, day-ahead prices averaged $25.23/MMBtu this report week, the highest weekly average on record going back to September 2007 and up $1.95/MMBtu from last week’s average of $23.28/MMBtu, EIA said.
In the same week last year (week ending Sep. 30, 2020), prices in East Asia and at TTF were at $5.00/MMBtu and $4.11/MMBtu, respectively, the agency said.
