US June LNG exports fall 10% on maintenance cuts, weaker demand

HOUSTON, July 5 (Reuters) - U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas fell 10% in June to 6.82 million tonnes (MT), from 7.58 MT the previous month, as plant maintenance curbed output and European demand slid, according to preliminary data from Refinitiv Eikon.

Planned outages at two big suppliers recently hampered U.S. LNG production, which combined with a warmer-than-normal winter led to a build-up of gas inventories and lower prices, according to consultancy Rystad Energy.

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Gas supplies to U.S. plants in the last week of June was 10.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), "lower than the May average of 12.3 Bcfd due to planned maintenance," wrote Rystad Energy analyst Lu Ming Pang in a report last week.

Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG export facility underwent a planned operations turnaround that lasted for 25 days through June 26 and cut gas consumption to a low of 2.1 bcfd on June 21 from 4.56 bcfd at the end of May, according to Refinitiv.

"We were clear with the market that we expected to have one major turnaround this year and we have just completed it last month," Corey Grindal, Cheniere chief operating officer, told Reuters on Monday.

Europe's overall LNG imports trended lower last month, to between 13.2 bcfd and 14.5 bcfd, with countries hitting storage goals and likely nearly full capacity, analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co said in a report last month.

Europe took 47% of June U.S. exports, compared with 60% in May and 71% in April, the data showed. Asia took 27% of the total in June from 14% in May, while Latin America received 17% of the total last month, up from 11% in May.

June's 6.82 million tonnes of U.S. LNG exports were above the level of the same month a year ago when shipments were limited by a fire and outage at the second-largest U.S. LNG producer, Freeport LNG.

If demand does not slip, LNG exports could increase this quarter as gas flows to U.S. plants increase from the end of maintenance. Tudor Pickering Holt forecasts that feed gas will hit in excess of 14 bcfd this quarter.

(Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston Editing by Matthew Lewis)