LNG News Editor:
The US Department of Energy published its latest liquefied natural gas monthly export data with France leap-frogging Mexico and India into seventh place from 10th in the overall standings as double-digit cargo shipments were diverted to Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Europe bound
France, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands led the monthly destinations and with the Elba Island plant in Texas registering the highest price at point of export.
The total number of US cargoes delivered worldwide since March 2016 now amounts to 3,098 shipments, or 10,767 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
A further 976 ISO containers have been shipped to nations in the Caribbean and Latin America from ports in Florida.
The month of March proved to be a record one for ISO deliveries from Florida to the Caribbean because of a surge in containers sent to Jamaica.
The average price at the export points of the six US export plants listed in the March data came to $8.81 per million British thermal units in March 2022 versus $9.79 per MMBtu in the previous month, according to the DoE March LNG report.
The Sabine Pass plant remained the volume leader in March 2022 with six Trains on stream and supplying 38 cargoes, followed by Cameron LNG 26, Freeport LNG 21, Corpus Christi 19, Cove Point seven and Elba Island three.
Shipments from the Elba Island plant in Georgia, majority-owned by US pipelines and terminals company Kinder Morgan, cost the most for March 2022.
Shipments from Elba Island, where Shell is the lone buyer under a 20-year contract, averaged $10.12 per MMBtu versus $10.40 per MMBtu in February 2022 and for the 12 months-to-date the Georgia plant’s shipments fetched an average of $7.76 per MMBtu from the point of export.
