East Asia likely to get first Corpus Christi LNG cargo

The first cargo from Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi LNG export plant in south Texas likely will go to east Asia, Cheniere chief executive Jack Fusco said today.

"The tanker will be sold to whoever pays the highest price, which now looks to be the Far East," Fusco said at an opening ceremony at the $15bn project.

Fusco was referring to the Cheniere-leased LNG vessel Golar Tundra, moored at Corpus Christi waiting for the first cargo.

"It will probably end up somewhere in the Far East," Fusco said, adding that the most likely destination would be Japan, South Korea or China.

The Argus Northeast Asia (Anea) spot LNG price for delivery in the second half of December was assessed today at $10/mmBtu.

The maiden cargo likely will be exported in one to two weeks, Corpus Christi LNG general manager Ari Aziz told Argus.

The first of three liquefaction trains being completed at the facility started producing small volumes of LNG yesterday and those initial volumes will be used to cool the first storage tank and loading arms, Aziz said. Since Corpus Christi is the first greenfield LNG export plant in the contiguous US, it does not have access to previously imported LNG to cool down facilities, so the start-up process takes a little longer to produce the necessary LNG for cool-down.

The cool-down process will likely last five to seven days, during which gas intake will be about 100mn cf/d, he said. After that intake would jump to about 400mn cf/d and then to 600mn cf/d or more, he said.

Each train that Cheniere has completed or is building at Corpus Christi and its Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana has baseload production of 4.5mn t/yr, equivalent to about 620mn cf/d (17.5mn m³/d) of gas, and peak capacity of 5mn t/yr.

Each train would typically produce a full LNG cargo in about five to seven days if it is operating at or near capacity.

The fifth train at Sabine Pass is also expected to export its first cargo soon, having started LNG production in late October.

Each train is expected to produce five to seven test cargoes that Cheniere would sell into the spot market before starting long-term operations in the first quarter of 2019.

The second train at Corpus Christi is expected to start long-term operations in the second half of 2019 and train 3 in 2021.

source: Argus Media

Corpus Christi LNG Cheniere Fusco