US imports no LNG in November

OREANDA-NEWS. The US did not import any LNG in November, the first time since November 1988, the US Department of Energy said.

The US also did not export any LNG in November, after exporting five cargoes in May-October from the Kenai LNG facility in Alaska.

US LNG deliveries have declined significantly in recent years because of booming domestic shale gas production.

In the first 11 months of 2014, the US imported a gas equivalent of 51.2 Bcf (1.45bn m?). The country in 2014 likely will import its lowest annual total since a gas equivalent volume of 39.1 Bcf in 1996. Last year, the country imported a gas equivalent of 96.8 Bcf.

More than half of the imports in January-November, a gas equivalent of 26.8 Bcf, were delivered to the Everett terminal outside Boston, Massachusetts. Everett is the only US terminal that still serves some baseload demand, as it sends gas via an intrastate pipeline to the nearby Mystic river gas-fired generator. The other operating US import facilities typically store LNG and wait to sell gas when spot prices rise because of cold-weather demand.

ConocoPhillips in May said it signed a contract to sell to Japanese utility Kansai Electric six cargoes this year from Kenai. The five cargoes that were loaded in May-October had a combined volume equivalent to 13.3 Bcf of gas. They had landed prices ranging from \$14.97/mmBtu, for a cargo loaded on 10 October, to \$15.87/mmBtu, for cargoes loaded on July 9 and August 8.