Maintenance at 2 LNG Export Plants Lowers U.S. Feedgas Demand
U.S. LNG feedgas demand slipped last week to its lowest level since mid-December due to ongoing maintenance at the Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG export facilities along the Gulf Coast. Two trains were offline at Sabine Pass, and one train was offline at Cameron, resulting in feedgas demand of 13.28 Bcf/d for the week (down 7% from the previous week). In something of a miracle, Freeport LNG was online with all trains producing! Read More “Maintenance at 2 LNG Export Plants Lowers U.S. Feedgas Demand”
Bloomberg reports that Donald Trump is using our dominance of a niche petroleum gas, ethane, as a bargaining chip in his trade war with China. Last week MDN brought you the news that the Trump U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is blocking at least three (possibly more) cargoes of ethane by rejecting permits to export to Enterprise Products Partners (see 
Three years ago, in May 2022, MDN brought you the surprising news that ethane, propane, and butane (NGLs) were being exported from a facility in Gibbstown, NJ, located along the Delaware River, at a former DuPont dynamite factory site (see 
Two days ago, RBN Energy reported that ethane and butane exports for Enterprise Products Partners and possibly other NGL exporters were in doubt following a notice received by Enterprise from the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) flagging such exports to China as a security risk (see 
RBN Energy is reporting that ethane and butane exports for Enterprise Products Partners and possibly other NGL exporters are in doubt following a notice received from the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) flagging such exports to China as a security risk. Specifically, ethane and butane exports pose an “unacceptable risk of use in or diversion to a military end use.” RBN’s blunt assessment is this: “The BIS decision has the potential to ruin the U.S. ethane market and disrupt global flows.” 
We need a scorecard to keep track of all the ups and downs at the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility, located near Galveston, Texas. We don’t think it’s a stretch to say the plant, which is the third-largest LNG export plant in the U.S., has been down almost as much as it has been up since first coming online in 2019 (
On May 22, the International Gas Union (IGU) released its 16th annual 2025 World LNG Report, the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in the LNG sector (full copy below). According to the report, today’s LNG market is “poised to evolve rapidly” as commercial, political, regulatory, and environmental factors offer opportunities. However, the LNG market is “also fraught with uncertainty.” 
Freeport LNG’s export terminal with three liquefaction “trains” completely shut down (all three trains) in June 2022 after an explosion and fire (see 
The Marcellus/Utica region is the United States’ top natural gas production area, accounting for about one-third of the country’s daily output. Natural gas production in the M-U has soared from 2 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) to over 33 Bcf/d today in the past 15 years. Growth has slowed in recent years due to pipeline constraints, but new pipeline projects, rising Gulf Coast LNG demand, and in-basin data center development could drive a resurgence. Despite past challenges like canceled pipelines and a focus on the Permian, our region’s vast potential and improving infrastructure suggest a breakout, according to RBN Energy. However, low gas prices and regulatory hurdles remain big concerns, though data centers and LNG exports could boost demand significantly. 
In January 2024, the sleazeballs that operated Joe Biden’s autopen slapped a “pause” on allowing the Department of Energy (DOE) to review and issue export approvals for any new LNG export facilities (see 
Last December, MDN told you that the future of what could become the country’s largest LNG export facility, Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2), was in question following a court order from the the leftwing U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (see 
Energy Transfer’s (ET) Lake Charles LNG project is in the news again. In April, we told you that ET had landed a new partner to help pay for the project, MidOcean Energy, which will cover 30% of the cost of building the plant (see