Kinder Morgan's Elba Liquefaction planned to resume work Friday to get the Georgia LNG export facility ready to begin commercial service, days after evacuating crews due to the threat from Hurricane Dorian.
Inspections found that the facility near Savannah, Georgia, did not suffer any damage, spokeswoman Katherine Hill said in an email responding to questions. The storm, which weakened in intensity as it moved beyond the Georgia coast, made landfall Friday in North Carolina.
CEO Steve Kean had disclosed the latest interruption to the facility's commissioning activities during a presentation at a New York investor conference on Wednesday. Slides accompanying Kean's presentation said the company's target remained having the first of Elba's 10 liquefaction trains in service in the third quarter. When Elba will actually export its first cargo was not made unclear.
Backed by a 20-year offtake agreement with Shell, Elba began began production July 17. Since then, feedgas flows to the facility had been largely stable, as the terminal was understood to be preparing its first cargo. No gas was observed to be flowing to the facility on Friday for a third consecutive day, S&P Global Platts Analytics data showed.
With workers expected to return to the facility Friday, gas flows are expected to ramp back up in the days ahead.
There are five other major LNG export terminals in the US currently operating. The only one of those on the US East Coast - Dominion Energy's Cove Point terminal in Maryland - did not see any noticeable reduction in feedgas flows in the week through Friday, Platts Analytics data showed.
