QatarEnergy (QE) and ExxonMobil's 18.1mn t/yr (2.4bn ft³/d) Golden Pass LNG terminal in southeast Texas is set to load its second cargo after the 174,000m³ HL Sea Eagle arrived today.
The ExxonMobil-operated vessel docked at Golden Pass after holding offshore in the Gulf of Mexico since 17 April, Kpler ship-tracking data show. Golden Pass began producing LNG on 30 March and exported its first cargo on 22 April as the terminal ramps up the first of its three liquefaction trains. A commissioning terminal's second export is often more indicative of loading rates than the first because the first shipment typically includes a partial re-export of the facility's imported cool-down cargo.
Feedgas flows to the terminal have averaged about 340mn ft³/d since the 174,00m³ Al Qaiyyah departed Golden Pass with a 75,600t cargo on 22 April, pipeline data show. That is equal to about 42.5pc of train 1's peak capacity. Sustained feedgas at this level indicates a loading rate of one 75,600t cargo every 11-12 days, assuming 10-15pc of feedgas is burned or consumed during the liquefaction process and all of the production is loaded directly onto a ship. Some of the production, however, is likely being used to commission Golden Pass' five 155,000³ LNG storage tanks.
It is unclear when a vessel will arrive to load the terminal's third cargo. QE has four empty LNG carriers in the Gulf of Mexico, three of which are signaling arrival at the 27.2mn t/yr Plaquemines facility in southeast Louisiana and another for the 12.4mn t/yr Calcasieu Pass terminal in southwest Louisiana, Kpler data show. ExxonMobil has an empty vessel, the 174,000m³ Cool Racer, sailing north of Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico with a declaration of "for orders".
