A liquefied natural gas tanker, the Asia Vision, arrived this week off the coast near Cheniere Energy Inc’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, the second vessel standing by to receive the first LNG cargo to be exported from the lower 48 states, according to a Thomson Reuters interactive map on Wednesday. Two weeks ago, Cheniere’s Cheniere Energy Partners LP said the expected first cargo to leave Sabine Pass would be delayed until February or March from January due to mechanical problems at the plant’s 0.65 billion cubic feet per day Train 1. Once operational, Sabine Pass will be the first LNG export terminal outside of Alaska. The United States has been exporting LNG mostly to Japan from Alaska since 1969. With expected growth in pipeline exports to Mexico and LNG exports to the world, the United States expects to transition from a net importer of gas to a net exporter by 2017 as the nation’s shale gas production continues to grow, according to federal energy forecasts. The U.S. was last a net exporter of gas in 1957. The Energy Atlantic LNG tanker, which was scheduled to pick up the first cargo from Sabine Pass, has been sitting off the coast of the facility in the Gulf of Mexico since January. There is also another LNG tanker, the Clean Ocean, that media reports have said will move export cargoes from Sabine Pass in the future. That vessel, however, is located in the South Atlantic off the coast of South Africa, according to the Thomson Reuters Interactive Map. Energy traders have said the Sabine Pass delay was not expected to result in much of a price reaction given the LNG oversupply already sloshing around the market. Liquefaction trains 2-5 are under construction at the plant. Analysts have said they would enter service between 2016 and 2019. Cheniere plans to build six 0.65 bcfd trains at Sabine Pass. When all trains are operating, the plant will be able to export up to 5 percent of the current U.S. gas production. Houston-based Cheniere Energy Inc owns and operates Sabine Pass through its general partner ownership interest in Cheniere Energy Partners and partial ownership interest in Cheniere Energy Partners Holdings LLC.