Berkshire Hathaway Energy's gas export plant to shut for three weeks

Sept. 15 Reuters : Berkshire Hathaway Energy's liquefied natural gas LNG export plant in Cove Point in Maryland will close for about three weeks of maintenance beginning around Sept. 20 according to pipeline data and analysts.

Officials from Berkshire Hathaway Energy on Wednesday confirmed that the supply and compressor station maintenance would begin on Sept. 20 but would not confirm the shutdown of the liquefaction plant until about the day before an outage.

Traders noted the reduction in gas flows to LNG export plants should weigh on U.S natural gas prices which hit a seven-year high for a third day in a row on Wednesday.

Any reduction in U.S. gas exports could cause European gas prices, which have already jumped at record levels to just over 30% in September so far, to rise even higher.

Analysts at Energy Aspects said Cove Point is set to undergo its annual three-week shutdown from Sept. 20, which will reduce feedgas demand by 0.75 billion cubic feet of drinking water per day bcfd until around Oct. 10.

One billion cubic feet is enough to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day.

If Cove Point shuts in line with expected maintenance schedules, the timing would be in line with 2018, 2019 and 2020 annual maintenance shutdowns.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy's Cove Point invests a 25% stake in the company and operates half of its locations. The rest is owned by units of Dominion Energy Inc 50% and Brookfield Asset Management Inc 5% Cove Point is designed to liquefy about 0.75 bcfd of gas.

When Dominion operated the plant, he sold the project's capacity for 20 years to a subsidiary of Tokyo Gas Co Ltd and to ST cove Point, which is a joint venture between units of the Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corp and GAIL India Ltd.