Cheniere (LNG) to Fix Louisiana Plant After Pollution Test Fail

Cheniere Energy, Inc. LNG will repair and replace equipment at its Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana after tests disclosed that it surpassed the newly imposed hazardous emission limits on certain carcinogens, per a recent Reuters report.

However, the repair and replacement work will not have any material impact on operations. A round of testing revealed that at least one of Cheniere’s turbines at its facility in Louisiana failed to meet the new norms.

Meanwhile, the turbines at the firm’s only other U.S. LNG facility in Texas met regulations, per documents obtained from state regulators through information requests, which were reviewed by Reuters.

Per reports, the company had written to Louisiana watchdogs in a Sep 8 email that its preliminary testing indicated that one of the eight generator turbines at the facility failed to meet the new standards and that LNG would carry out repairs on the turbine to lower emissions.

Moreover, Cheniere requested approval from the state to re-test eight compressor turbines and mentioned that it was replacing four others. However, the company did not detail the results of initial tests on those pieces of equipment. Cheniere conducted initial testing on 44 stationary turbines at the facility, per the Sep 8 email.

Per a copy of the documents seen by Reuters, LNG's Corpus Christi unit submitted testing documents to the state that showed emissions from all its 18 refrigeration turbines were well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s threshold.

Cheniere had earlier asked the Biden-led U.S. administration to exempt it from the limits on the emission of cancer-causing pollutants, arguing that it could force the company to shut operations for an extended period and that it would jeopardize the country's efforts to scale up LNG supplies to Europe.

Cheniere Energy Inc. is primarily engaged in businesses related to LNG through its two business segments — LNG terminal and LNG and natural gas marketing. The Houston, TX-based LNG exporter, through its controlling interest in Cheniere Energy Partners L.P., owns and operates the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana — North America’s first large-scale liquefied gas export facility.

Cheniere currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some other top-ranked stocks from the energy space that warrant a look include Vista Oil & Gas VIST, RPC RES and Earthstone Energy ESTE, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Vista’s 2022 earnings is pegged at $2.40 per share, indicating an increase of 344% from the year-ago earnings of 54 cents.

The consensus estimate for VIST’s 2022 earnings has been revised about 22.4% upward over the past 60 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RPC’s 2022 earnings is pegged at 55 cents per share, up 1,733% from the year-ago earnings of 3 cents.

RES beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in all the trailing four quarters, the average being around 80%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Earthstone’s 2022 earnings has been revised upward by about 22.1% over the past 60 days from $4.79 to $5.85 per share.

The consensus mark for ESTE’s 2022 earnings is pegged at $5.85 per share, indicating an increase of about 368% from the year-ago earnings of $1.25.

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