US LNG export projects, whether brownfield or greenfield, are multi-year, billion dollar projects. While construction timelines dictate their commissioning schedule, there can be inconvenient and convenient times in the unpredictable natural gas market to begin this testing.

The two most recent additions to the US fleet of natural gas liquefaction and export facilities – Cove Point LNG and Corpus Christi LNG – demonstrate this. They began operations about one year apart during the winter months, when gas prices are typically elevated, but disparate conditions over the two winters meant vastly different feedgas costs in the critical ramp-up phase.

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