Oct 8 (Reuters) - Cameron LNG said on Thursday it will shut its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Louisiana as Hurricane Delta approaches the Gulf Coast.
"We have decided to implement a controlled shutdown of the facility this morning with a safely sequestered ride-out team until Hurricane Delta passes, at which point, we will recommence LNG production," Cameron said.
Cheniere Energy Inc, meanwhile, said it planned to keep its Sabine Pass LNG plant in Louisiana operating.
"We have activated our severe weather plan to protect our people and our assets. We will staff Sabine Pass with a limited ride-out crew to safely manage operations," Cheniere said.
The last time a major hurricane, Laura, passed close to Cameron and Sabine, both companies evacuated personnel and shut their facilities.
Delta is expected to slam into southwest Louisiana near the plants on Friday with winds over 100 miles per hour (161 kph).
Energy traders said the drop in U.S. LNG exports from Laura and Delta helped boost gas prices in Europe and Asia to their highest since the start of the year.
The amount of pipeline gas flowing to Sabine fell from a five-month high of 4.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Tuesday to 3.5 bcfd on Wednesday and a preliminary 3.1 bcfd on Thursday, according to Refinitiv.
As Laura approached the coast, Cheniere shut Sabine by Aug. 25. It restarted flows to the plant around Sept. 3.
Cameron shut around Aug. 26 but had to wait until Sept. 27 to start exiting the outage because it took weeks for Entergy Corp, the local power company, to restore service to the plant.
Cameron waited until Oct. 4 for the first tanker to reach the plant because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to clear the ship channel connecting it to the Gulf of Mexico.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York and Ekaterina Kravtsova in London; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Nick Zieminski)
