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Tanker traffic into and out of Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG terminal resumes

Vessels began moving back into the channel that serves Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility in Louisiana on Friday after persistent fog had limited movements, temporarily reducing activity at the terminal.

Sabine Pilots advised Friday morning that inbound traffic was moving again, with six vessels scheduled to depart through the afternoon and 17 vessels waiting to start inward after the outbound traffic, according to a notice to shippers that use the channel.
Among LNG tankers, the Maran Gas Apollonia left Cheniere’s facility and was out for orders. As of Friday afternoon, there were two vessels, the Marvel Kite and the Singapore Energy, moored at the export terminal, with two other vessels anchored offshore awaiting arrival, according to S&P Global Platts’ cFlow trade flow software.

A weather forecast attached to the notice said there was a moderate chance for fog throughout the day Friday and a high probability for fog on Saturday.

Feedgas deliveries to Sabine Pass dipped from a high last week of 4.2 Bcf/d to just 2.5 Bcf/d on Friday as a brief break in the fog allowed for pilot services to resume. Since the fog began disrupting pilot services on January 13, feedgas deliveries have averaged just 2.8 Bcf/d, 1.4 Bcf/d below the January average, S&P Global Platts Analytics data show.

Once the fog fully subsides and normal port operations are restored, it can be expected that feedgas deliveries to Sabine Pass will pick back up to levels in line with the monthly average.

Weak demand in Asia and additional incremental supplies hitting the market offer bearish signals for prices for cargoes destined for the key importing region, according to a recent Platts Analytics outlook.

December prices for spot cargoes delivered into Northeast Asia, the largest demand market for LNG in the world, plunged 40% year on year. The average Platts JKM price assessed in December 2018 was $8.960/MMBtu versus $5.410/MMBtu last month.

That dynamic would further pressure netbacks and possibly push more supplies to Europe in search of the best return. In the meantime, most US export facilities continue to see high utilization, with long-term contracts underpinning the bulk of the capacity.
Source: Platts

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