Hurricane Laura’s varying impact on US Gulf Coast Crude, LNG flows

The last LNG export out of the US Gulf was on Sunday, with feedgas supply to Sabine Pass now down to almost zero, and feedgas to Sempra's Cameron LNG terminal at 0.43 Bcf/d. Given the direct hit on the Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG export terminals by Hurricane Laura, they will likely be the last terminals to restart exports in the Gulf. Nonetheless, there are a number of empty vessels waiting to load in the Gulf of Mexico, as highlighted in the map below.  

Crude imports and exports are faring much better, given the lack of impact from the hurricane on Corpus Christi. US Gulf crude exports are at a pace of 2.6 million barrels per day this week through Wednesday. Only Corpus saw loadings yesterday, with a total of 2.15 million bbls loaded at three terminals - 700,000 bbls each at Buckeye-Corpus, Buckeye-South Texas Gateway and Moda-Ingleside.

As for imports, some 656,000 bpd of crude have been imported into the US Gulf Coast this week as of Wednesday. There were two discharges in the US Gulf Coast yesterday, both to Corpus Christi. Both were of Colombian heavy sour Castilla - 490,000 bbls to Citgo's Corpus refinery and 327,000 bbls to NuStar's Corpus terminal.