Cheniere to ship LNG to Asia

USA

HOUSTON, November 25, 2016 – Cheniere is preparing to start shipping LNG from its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana through the Panama Canal to Asia, a company official told journalists on Friday.

The move, the first direct LNG sale by the company to Asian customers, suggests that markets in different parts of the world are starting to even up, Reuters reported.

“Recently because of the pick-up in Asian LNG prices to above USD 7 [per million British thermal units] we can start to deliver to north Asia,” the anonymous official told the agency, adding that the cargoes are scheduled to be delivered in a month or two, most likely to China or South Korea. “At the current market level it is a good price.”

Shipping large LNG cargoes through the Panama Canal, which reduces the distance tankers need to travel to Asia by an average of about a third, became possible after the canal was expanded in June.

Cheniere first started shipping LNG out of Sabine Pass in May, after a series of delays. The USD 15-billion facility is expected to be fully functional by 2018, when it is projected to comprise six LNG trains with a capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of LNG per year each.

“We are now commissioning the second train so we have more available cargoes to sell,” the company official added.

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