Cove Point boosts US LNG exports

A second facility will start supplying the fuel to international markets as American liquefied gas shipments gather pace

America's second major liquefied natural gas export plant, Dominion Energy's Cove Point project, is nearing its first cargo for export, marking the latest step in the US' transformation into a major supplier. Dominion said this week that its $4bn export facility in Maryland had started taking in feed gas for liquefaction, making first exports imminent. The initial test gas is being supplied and will be sold on by Shell. But the 5.4m tonnes per year—0.7bn cubic feet a day—facility is fully contracted for 20 years to sell gas to a joint venture between Japan's Sumitomo and Tokyo Gas as well as India's GAIL, some of Asia's biggest LNG buyers. Most of the gas being fed into Cove Point is expecte