In addition, the 6th train will be in service soon.
When all are in operation, the production capacity will be approximately 30 mtpa of LNG.
Also, it will process more than 4.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas into LNG.
Bloomberg estimated that natural gas flows to the LNG facility hit a record 5.1 billion cubic feet per day on both 20 and 21 January.
The higher flows are due to a capacity boost from Train 6, which is still undergoing the commissioning process.
David Seduski, an LNG industry analyst at Energy Aspects, also sees this as the company seizing an opportunity to cash in on the large gap between U.S. and European natural gas prices.
Natural gas sold on the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark is trading around $3.94 per million British thermal units, while gas on Europe’s TTF hub is topping $26.
The Sabine Pass terminal saw at least 6 double tanker bookings so far this year.
That’s one more than at the same time a year ago.
Seduski told Bloomberg:
- The double-bookings at Cheniere are more of a symptom of everything else
- Sabine Pass wants to load up as many cargoes as possible and rake in the money from the open arbitrage
- Since they have 2 ship berths and additional capacity from the sixth train, they can load 2 cargoes on some days and not dip too heavily into onsite inventories
The 3rd berth will serve to load LNG vessels for export.
It will be able to accommodate vessels with a capacity of 125,000-180,000 m3.
Construction on the berth is underway, and the targeted completion of the project is in the 1st quarter of 2023.
