Cheniere Energy said its groundbreaking LNG export terminal in Louisiana will see increased demand from emerging markets after shipments to Mexico and Chile dominated its first year of operation.
The Maran Gas Alexandria LNG tanker started loading up at Sabine Pass on Friday, and is poised to become the 100th vessel since the terminal opened in February 2016. Traffic is set to double this year with the start of two more production units, known as trains.
Potential new customers including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bahrain would add to the 18 nations that have so far received gas supplies from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass terminal. That’s helping put the US on course to become the world’s third-largest LNG exporter by 2020, a far cry from just a decade ago when it was facing a shortage of the fuel.
“Emerging markets are where we see demand,” said Anatol Feygin, Cheniere’s chief commercial officer, especially nations that don’t belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “I do see China and India continuing to be strong.”
So far, 41 of the tankers have gone to Mexico and South America, 29 to Asia and the rest to the Middle East and Europe, according to the Houston-based company. Those shipments have reached more than half of the 39 nations that are capable of receiving LNG imports. The approach of winter in the southern hemisphere may spur demand in nations like Brazil. Robust demand from Mexico will continue until the country builds out its gas pipeline network, Feygin said.
The “big surprise” in the global LNG market last year was strong demand from Jordan, Egypt and Pakistan after they installed floating import terminals, Feygin said. The UAE is a “very healthy, growing market” and the company is keeping close tabs on Bahrain’s interest in starting LNG imports by the early part of the next decade.
“Bahrain, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are countries that create very interesting opportunities because their economies rely on gas to a very large extent,” he said. Although Western Europe is “not a huge opportunity” given it’s dominated by pipeline supplies from Russia, Cheniere plans to compete for new business as LNG contracts expire.
Cheniere has just taken control of the third liquefaction plant at Sabine Pass from Bechtel Corp. The fourth train is going through the commissioning process and three more are under construction, including two at another plant in Texas.
“It is quite staggering to think that within the next half a year or so we will be more than halfway through the construction of these trains in terms of bringing four of seven online,” Feygin said.
An LNG carrier is docked at the Cheniere Energy terminal in this aerial photograph taken over Sabine Pass, Texas, US on February 24, 2016. Cheniere’s potential new customers including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bahrain would add to the 18 nations that have so far received gas supplies from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass terminal.
