QatarEnergy (QE) and ExxonMobil's 18.1mn t/yr (2.4bn ft³/d) Golden Pass LNG terminal in southeast Texas exported its first cargo on Wednesday, the joint venture partners said.
QE's 174,000m³ Al Qaiyyah LNG carrier departed Golden Pass after arriving for the terminal's first export on 20 April. Market participants have been awaiting the ramp-up of Golden Pass following the loss of around 1.6mn t/week of LNG from the de facto closure of the strait of Hormuz since the end of February. QE's 77mn t/yr Ras Laffan terminal in Qatar also suffered damage in an Iranian attack in March, likely losing 12.8mn t/yr of capacity for three to five years.
It is unclear where Al Qaiyyah will deliver the cargo. The ship had a declared draft of 11.6m, consistent with other fully laden LNG carriers departing the US Gulf coast, Kpler data show.
Golden Pass began producing LNG on 30 March, as the terminal ramps up the first of its three liquefaction trains. But the facility's loading rate is not yet apparent because the first shipment likely included a partial re-export of the facility's cool-down cargo, which arrived in December. Feedgas flows to Golden Pass have averaged 270mn ft³/d over the last seven days, indicating train 1 is operating at around a third of its capacity. Up to 15pc of feedgas is consumed or burned in the liquefaction process.
The 174,000m³ HL Sea Eagle, controlled by ExxonMobil, has been holding off the Texas coast since 20 April and could load the firm's first cargo from the terminal.
