Sep. 4--Despite the steady drop in natural gas prices, Gulf Coast liquefied natural gas terminals are expecting a steady stream of shipments in the coming weeks.

Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass terminal is expecting an LNG tanker at its dock this week and a second tanker by the middle of next week. And the Trunkline LNG terminal in Lake Charles, La., could see as many as three new tanker loads of LNG in the coming weeks, according to Waterborne Energy, a Houston-based LNG market tracking firm.

"The last place you would expect to see a potential 20 bcf build in LNG imports in today's weak natural gas environment would be the U.S. Gulf," Waterborne Energy said in a report Thursday.

Natural gas for October delivery fell 20.7 cents to settle at $2.508 per million British thermal units in trading Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices dropped as low as $2.50 -- the lowest since March 2002 -- after the government reported that U.S. natural gas supplies grew again last week and are now nearly 18 percent above the five-year average.

In other energy trading, benchmark crude oil fell 9 cents to settle at $67.96 a barrel on the NYMEX. In London, Brent crude dropped 54 cents to settle at $67.12 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The next Sabine Pass LNG shipment will come via the BP-owned tanker British Ruby, which is expected to deliver its frigid cargo this weekend. Cheniere's own marketing business purchased the gas, company spokeswoman Diane Haggard said, and will sell it to an end customer elsewhere in the U.S. or store it for export to an overseas market at a later date. The terminal obtained an export license from federal regulators earlier this year for such deals.

A second tanker, the Repsol-owned Castillo de Villalba, is expected on Wednesday, according to Waterborne Energy. The cargo was purchased by one of the other partners in the terminal -- Total or Chevron Corp. Haggard says Cheniere doesn't comment on the activities of its partners.

The Sabine Pass terminal, the first new land-based LNG terminal built in the U.S. in more than 20 years, took its first shipment in April 2008.

The timing was poor. U.S. natural gas production has surged in recent years as many companies found success tapping unconventional gas formations throughout the country. The economic downturn compounded the problem, sapping demand.

Three other terminals opened soon after Cheniere Energy's: The Freeport LNG terminal on Quintana Island about 60 miles south of Houston; Woodlands-based Excelerate Energy's floating terminal off Massachusetts last year; and Sempra Energy's Cameron LNG terminal south of Lake Charles.

Sabine Pass is less than two weeks away from finishing its fifth and final storage tank, bringing the terminal's storage capacity to 16.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

tom.fowler@chron.com

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