Adds details from Cheniere executive.
The first US cargo of domestically produced LNG will depart from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass facility later today for Brazil, making it first LNG export from the lower 48 US states since the domestic shale gas boom.
The first cargo was originally expected to be loaded in January but this was delayed because of instrumentation issues. Sabine Pass will come on line about two years before any other project.
Meg Gentle, president of marketing for Cheniere, told Argus on the sidelines of the IHS CeraWeek conference in Houston today that she did not know to which Brazilian terminal the vessel Asia Vision will take the cargo. She declined to disclose the price, only saying it is a "market price."
Cheniere will have more commissioning cargoes to market from trains 1 and 2 in the coming months, but the company does not know the exact dates they will be ready because it will depend on how quickly contractor Bechtel progresses on the trains, Gentle said. Cheniere is building five trains at Sabine Pass, and each successive train likely will come online after the preceding train, she said.
Commissioning for train 1 is expected to be completed in time to allow BG to have access to 3.5mn t/yr of contractual supplies in the spring. Commissioning of train 2 is expected to be completed in time to allow Gas Natural to have access to an additional 3.5mn t/yr of contractual supplies by the summer, she said.
Cheniere will have about 1mn t/yr of baseload supply that it will be able to market from each train.
Cheniere's liquefaction trains likely will run at capacity, despite customers having the option to not take LNG and low global prices. So as long as customers can sell LNG for more than 115pc of the Nymex Henry Hub price — which is what Cheniere is charging customers — plus the cost of shipping LNG, they will take it because they will at least reduce their losses. Liquefaction fees for the first four trains at Cheniere range from $2.25/mmBtu to $3/mmBtu.
There are a limited number of markets that will be able to take the next few cargoes from Sabine Pass because the LNG at the facility's storage tanks has a high ethane content. That is because cargoes previously brought to the facility to keep equipment at proper low temperatures were in the tanks for prolonged periods, allowing some methane to evaporate. Those markets include Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Spain and some other places in Europe, Gentle said.
