Energy Prospectus

Cove Point terminal becomes nation’s second to export LNG. E&E News.

Maryland's Cove Point terminal carried out its first offload of liquefied natural gas late Thursday, according to Dominion Energy Inc., marking the opening of the nation's second major terminal for LNG exports. Dominion said an LNG-focused subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC would both provide gas for the terminal and haul it by ship, without naming a vessel. But a Singapore-flagged, Shell-owned LNG tanker, the Gemmata, left the port Friday morning, according to maritime tracker SeaWeb. The $4 billion terminal began producing LNG in late January but had faced a delay on its first delivery. Final commissioning of the liquefaction facility at Cove Point was going as expected, said Dominion, with "all major equipment" operated.

Two more winter storms are expected to hit the Northeast U.S. over the next ten days. These two will bring colder than normal air across the Great Lakes Region, which is bullish for natural gas demand. See daily update at https://www.weatherbell.com/premium/

U.S. gas in storage may not reach my SWAG of 1,200 Bcf by March 31st, but it should be close. < 5-year average for 3/31 is 1,700 Bcf

FERC just approved the Dominion request for official commissioning of Cove Point this afternoon.

The U.S. is currently exporting just over 7 Bcf per day. By 2020 our export capacity should be close to 19 Bcf per day.