US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports rose in the week ending February 15, while the Henry Hub spot price increased slightly when compared to the week before, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The EIA said in its weekly natural gas report that 26 LNG carriers departed the US plants between February 9 and February 15, two shipments more when compared to the week before.
According to the agency, the total capacity of LNG vessels carrying these cargoes is 98 Bcf.
Overall natural gas deliveries to US LNG export terminals increased by 3.9 percent or 0.5 Bcf/d week over week to 12.9 Bcf/d, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights
Natural gas deliveries to terminals in South Louisiana increased by 0.2 Bcf/d to 9.0 Bcf/d, while deliveries to Texas terminals increased by 0.2 Bcf/d to 2.7 Bcf/d.
Also, natural gas deliveries to terminals along the East Coast increased by 0.1 Bcf/d to 1.2 Bcf/d over the same period.
On several days at the end of the report week, overall natural gas deliveries reached 13 Bcf/d for the first time since May 2022, the agency said.
Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant shipped nine cargoes and its Corpus Christi facility sent four shipments during the week under review.
Sempra’s Cameron LNG and Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG plant each sent four cargoes, while the Cove Point facility and the Elba Island terminal each dispatched one cargo, the EIA said, citing shipping data by Bloomberg Finance.
Freeport LNG ships three cargoes
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 and is seeking approval to restart commercial operations.
The LNG terminal shipped the first cargo from its LNG export plant in Texas since the shutdown in June last year on Sunday.
In total, three vessels departed Freeport LNG this week, after loading LNG out of storage tanks, the EIA said.
Henry Hub slightly up
This report week, the Henry Hub spot price rose 2 cents from $2.42 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $2.44/MMBtu this Wednesday, the agency said.
Moreover, the price of the March 2023 NYMEX contract increased 7.5 cents, from $2.396/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.471/MMBtu this Wednesday.
The price of the 12-month strip averaging March 2023 through February 2024 futures contracts climbed 3.3 cents to $3.228/MMBtu, the EIA said.
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 39 cents to a weekly average of $17.91/MMBtu.
Natural gas futures for delivery at the Dutch TTF decreased $1.15 to a weekly average of $16.68/MMBtu.
In the same week last year (week ending February 16, 2022), the prices in East Asia and at TTF were $24.43/MMBtu and $24.87/MMBtu, respectively, the agency said.