Berkshire Hathaway Maryland Cove Point LNG shut for annual maintenance

(Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Energy's Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Maryland shut on Saturday for annual maintenance that is expected to last about three weeks, according to analysts and pipeline data.

Data provider Refinitiv said the amount of gas flowing to the plant dropped to near zero on Saturday from an average of 0.76 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) over the prior month.

Cove Point and other U.S. LNG export plants shut in the spring and autumn when global demand for gas for heating or cooling is lower than during the peak winter and summer months.

Cove Point usually shuts in the autumn. The plant shut from Sept. 20-Oct. 11 in 2021, according to Refinitiv data.

Cove Point is designed to liquefy about 0.75 bcfd of gas into LNG.

One billion cubic feet is enough to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Berkshire Hathaway Energy operates Cove Point and owns 25% of the facility. The rest is owned by units of Dominion Energy Inc (50%) and Brookfield Asset Management Inc (25%).

When Dominion operated the plant it sold the project's capacity for 20 years to a subsidiary of GAIL (India) Ltd and to ST Cove Point, which is a joint venture between units of Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corp and Tokyo Gas Co Ltd.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Mark Porter)

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