Sabine Pass LNG starts four-week shutdown

OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2016. Cheniere Energy has begun a four-week shutdown of its Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana to repair gas flares that have not functioned properly.

The facility was scheduled to receive about 20.8mn cf (600,000m?) of gas today, after receiving the same amount yesterday. Those volumes are negligible compared with the average intake of 1.18 Bcf/d on 1-15 September, indicating that production from trains 1-2 at Sabine Pass stopped yesterday.

Cheniere has said that the four-week shutdown would begin sometime this month, but it has not responded to requests to provide a more precise timeline.

Sabine Pass could continue to export during the shutdown, as the five LNG storage tanks at the terminal have combined capacity equivalent to about 17 Bcf of gas. A typical LNG cargo is equivalent to about 3-3.5 Bcf of gas, so four or five exports are possible during the shutdown if the tanks are relatively full.

According to an Argus analysis, the storage tanks now contain a gas equivalent of about 17 Bcf. Not all of that could be exported, as typically an LNG storage tank has to be 5-10pc full and some LNG needs to stay in cryogenic equipment to maintain adequate low temperatures.

Cheniere is building five liquefaction trains at the \\$20bn facility, each with peak capacity of 5mn t/yr, equivalent to about 694mn cf/d (19.6mn m?/d) of gas, and baseload capacity of 4.5mn t/yr. Train 1 exported its first cargo on 24 February and train 2 in August. The facility was exporting about one cargo a week before train 2 came on line, and in August the rate doubled to about two cargoes a week.

Contractor Bechtel last week completed testing of train 2 and handed the unit over to Cheniere before the shutdown.

Cheniere has said that trains 3 and 4 would come on line six months after the prior respective train. Train 5 is scheduled to start operating in late 2019.