United States' New England set to get second LNG cargo this winter

12/20/2022

(Reuters) - New England will get another load of much-needed LNG for the winter heating season in coming days from a vessel full of the supercooled fuel that is on its way to Boston Harbor.

That would be the second LNG cargo from Trinidad and Tobago to go to the Northeastern U.S. region this winter. The first arrived on the same ship - the Cadiz Knutsen - in November.

New England depends on LNG and oil to fuel some power plants on the coldest days when most of the pipeline gas available to the region is used to heat homes and businesses.

About half of the power generated in New England comes from gas-fired plants.

The Cadiz Knutsen was expected to reach U.S. energy company Constellation Energy Corp's Everett LNG import terminal in Massachusetts on Wednesday.

That would be only the second time an LNG vessel visited Everett since August, according to Refinitiv data.

That's because New England gas buyers are competing with European utilities willing to pay around $33 per MM British thermal units (MMBtu) for gas compared with just $5 in the United States.

The Massachusetts port has imported just 18.1 B cubic feet (bcf) of gas as LNG during the first 11 months of this year.

That is down from 19.8 bcf during the same period in 2021 and a five-year (2017-2021) average of 35.9 bcf, according to federal energy data.

When U.S. energy company Exelon Corp owned the Everett LNG facility, that company said it used the terminal to import fuel for its Mystic power plant. Exelon also said it sold some LNG to utilities throughout New England to help them meet their peak demand needs.

Exelon spun off Constellation earlier this year.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; editing by Jonathan Oatis )