LNG arrives at two new US terminals

Two LNG tankers arriving along the upper US Texas Gulf Coast within five days of each other are delivering commissioning cargoes for two new LNG terminals, one in Louisiana and one in Texas.

The 145,000cu m 'Celestine River' docked at Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass terminal, in Cameron Parish, along the Sabine River border near Port Arthur. The tanker had loaded its cargo at Nigeria LNG. On April 15, the 138,000cu m LNG regasification tanker 'Excelsior' arrived at Freeport LNG Development LP's Quintana terminal, about 110 kilometres south of Houston. The LNGR tanker had loaded its cargo in Trinidad and Tobago, historically the largest LNG shipper to the US. These two terminals, which will undergo cool down over the next several weeks, and receive two or three more cargoes each in the process, will be the first land-based LNG terminals to open in the US in more than 25 years. Two more US terminals, also in Louisiana and Texas, are in final stages of construction and expect to start up later this year or in first quarter 2009. ExxonMobil Golden Pass terminal lies across the Sabine River from Cheniere's terminal. And east of Sabine Pass, near Hackberry, 28 kilometres from the Gulf of Mexico, Sempra Energy subsidiary Sempra LNG is in the final months of building its Cameron LNG terminal.

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