Natural gas spot prices in the United States were mixed in the week ending August 3 with the Henry Hub price rising 8¢ from last Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
The Henry Hub spot price rose from $2.80/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.88/MMBtu two days ago, the EIA said in its report issued on Thursday.
“Similarly, at the Chicago Citygate, prices increased 10¢ from $2.75/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.85/MMBtu yesterday. In California, prices were mixed. At the Northern California PG&E Citygate, prices gained 3¢, going from $3.15/MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.18/MMBtu yesterday. By contrast, in Southern California, prices fell 63¢ over the report week to $2.79/MMBtu as hot weather moderated.”
According to data from PointLogic, total supply of natural gas remained the same as last week, averaging 81.4 Bcf/d. Dry production grew by 1% over the report week, and was equal to its year-ago level. Average net imports from Canada decreased by 9% from last week, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) sendout remained flat.
U.S. LNG exports
The natural gas pipeline flows to Cheniere’ Sabine Pass liquefaction terminal averaged 0.9 Bcf/d for the week ending August 3, 26% higher than the previous week, according to the EIA.
Pipeline receipts at the terminal reached 1.1 Bcf/d last Friday, as part of testing of the terminal’s second train, but declined to 0.5 Bcf/d on Monday, and remained at 0.8 Bcf/d on Wednesday, PointLogic data reveals.
Increased pipeline flow to the terminal is part of a standard testing of a liquefaction train prior to start-up, and involves ramping operation of the train up and down, according to analytics firm Genscape.
As previously reported by LNG World News, Genscape, that has infrared cameras pointed at the facility, said that Sabine Pass Train 2 has started producing the chilled fuel.
Genscape said it now expects the second liquefaction train to have three months of startup where the engineering procurement and construction checklist is completed allowing for the sign over from LNG engineer Bechtel to Cheniere.
Cheniere said earlier this year that the first cargo from the second train at Sabine Pass is expected to be shipped in mid-August.
Sabine pass export plant, first of its kind to ship U.S. shale gas overseas, shipped at least 20 cargoes since it started producing the chilled fuel in February.
According to the EIA, one vessel with LNG-carrying capacity of 3 Bcf is currently loading at the terminal.
AIS data provided by the vessel tracking website, MarineTraffic, shows that the Clean Energy LNG carrier is the vessel in question.
LNG World News Staff