US Cove Point LNG terminal enters commercial service

Dominion Energy said on Tuesday that its Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland, the second US facility to produce LNG from shale gas, has entered commercial service for natural gas liquefaction and export.

“After completing a planned maintenance outage, the facility has been ramping up to full production of LNG from natural gas provided by its export customers since late March,” Dominion said in its statement.

Dominion did not provide any additional information.

The LNG export facility will produce the chilled fuel for ST Cove Point, the joint venture of Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and Tokyo Gas, and for India’s GAIL under 20-year contracts.

To remind, the commissioning cargo departed the Cove Point facility on March 2 onboard Shell’s Gemmata LNG carrier and landed at the Dragon import terminal in the UK on March 21.

The $4 billion Cove Point facility has a nameplate capacity of 5.25 mtpa. It became the second US shale gas-fed LNG export facility following Cheniere Energy’s startup at Sabine Pass in Louisiana two years ago.

US LNG exports are set to continue to rise as more facilities come online. These include the Elba Island facility, Cameron LNG, Freeport LNG and Cheniere’s second project in Corpus Christi.

LNG World News Staff