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US natural gas demand for LNG falls as Cheniere decreases output

There was a significant decrease on Tuesday in the quantity of U.S. natural gas being melted for export with a drop in demand from Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi plant in Texas and its Sabine Pass operation in Louisiana, according to information from monetary firm LSEG.

Cheniere is the biggest U.S. producer and the world's 2nd biggest exporter of melted natural gas (LNG) along with the biggest purchaser of U.S. natural gas.

At Cheniere's Corpus Christi facility, gas demand on Tuesday was down by near to one billion cubic feet, to 3.95 bcf from its routine 5 bcf, and was down to 1.6 bcf at its Sabine Pass plant, from the typical 2.2 bcf.

Cheniere declined to comment.

The fall in demand follows flat U.S. LNG exports in March due to ongoing repair work at the nation's second biggest LNG center, Freeport LNG.

Unless there is an emergency situation or planned maintenance, there is a reward for all U.S. LNG producers to take full advantage of output because the distinction in cost between the U.S. Henry Hub exchange cost and the Dutch TTF and the Japanese-Korean JKM benchmark costs make it profitable to export as much U.S. LNG as possible, stated Ira Joseph, a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University's Center for Energy Policy.

From a prices point of view, TTF and JKM are well above $ 8 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) and Henry Center is still listed below $2, so even though I have not had a great took a look at the forward curve, I assume it is still in favor of optimizing exports, Joseph informed .

He expects that Europe will remain the main market for U.S. gas even as a few of the gas might need to go into storage since of decreasing demand at the end of the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Experts do not expect U.S. LNG feedgas to go back to tape levels till liquefaction trains going through maintenance at Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas return to service.

Daily, LNG feedgas was up to a 10-week low of 11.3 bcfd on Tuesday.

Gas streams to the 7 huge U.S. LNG export plants was up to an average of 11.9 bcfd up until now in April, down from 13.1 bcfd in March. That compares to a month-to-month record of 14.7 bcfd in December.

(source: Reuters)