Sunday saw the arrival of the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Sempra LNG’s Cameron LNG terminal near Lake Charles, LA.

The $900 million terminal project has now begun its start-up process, which is expected to take a few weeks to complete, the company said. The terminal is expected to be commercially operational in July.

The first ship to berth at Cameron LNG is the British Diamond. It transported 136,500 cubic meters of LNG to Cameron from the Atlantic LNG liquefaction plant in Point Fortin, Trinidad. The ship spans three times the length of a U.S. football field. The cargo traveled 2,200 nautical miles.

Earlier this month Sempra Energy announced that it had struck a flexible short-term deal for up to 50 shipments of LNG from Qatar through the end of 2010 (see Daily GPI, June 9).

Four years ago Sempra signed a 20-year deal to provide Italy’s Eni S.p.A, a global oil and gas production company, with approximately 40% of the Cameron facility’s 1.5 Bcf/d capacity (see Daily GPI, Aug. 2, 2005). As a result of the agreement, Sempra LNG eventually began construction of the import terminal, and the Eni shipments kick in next month.

In May during a conference call with financial analysts, Sempra CEO Don Felsinger predicted that spot cargo deals would dominate LNG trade in the next few years. Felsinger reasoned that with substantial additional liquefaction capacity coming on-line and decreased demand for LNG, spot cargoes would likely dominate worldwide gas markets in the next two years (see Daily GPI, May 6).

Meanwhile, the first tanker to deliver LNG to the Canaport terminal in Saint John, NB (see Daily GPI, June 19) is expected to arrive Tuesday.

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.