First U.S. Shale Gas Export Reaches Brazil
By Harry R. Weber
(Bloomberg) — The tanker carrying the primary cargo of pure fuel from U.S. shale formations was coming into Brazil on Tuesday after leaving Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana on Feb. 24.
The liquefied pure fuel tanker Asia Vision was arriving at port in Rio de Janeiro, in keeping with delivery information compiled by Bloomberg. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-owned vitality firm, purchased the cargo of three billion cubic toes at a “market price,” Cheniere mentioned final month.
The cargo comes as a glut of fuel flowing out of shale formations led producers to discover overseas markets. It arrives as the worldwide market is coping with its personal surplus of gasoline, miserable international costs.
While rising provides and weakening demand threaten to restrict future fuel exports from the U.S., Cheniere has instructed U.S. regulators it expects to have shipped as many as eight cargoes from its Sabine Pass terminal by May.
Brazil is importing U.S. fuel forward of the spring, when South America’s demand is forecast to rise due partially to a drought that has elevated the nation’s dependence on the power-plant gasoline.
–With help from Naureen S. Malik, Christine Buurma and Sabrina Valle.
© 2016 Bloomberg L.P