Freeport LNG Restarts Gas Intake After Texas Train Outage

Freeport LNG increased natural gas intake at its Texas export facility after a compressor-related shutdown halted one of its three liquefaction trains.

(Reuters) — Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas was on track to take in more natural gas on Sunday and Monday after one of its three liquefaction trains shut down on June 19, according to a company report and data from financial firm LSEG.

Freeport is one of the world's most closely watched liquefied natural gas export plants because the shutdown and startup of the facility previously caused massive price swings in global gas markets.

When Freeport shuts, U.S. gas prices usually drop because the plant's demand for the fuel declines, and when liquefaction trains at Freeport restart, U.S. gas prices usually rise as demand for the fuel increases.

That is what happened so far on Monday with U.S. gas futures NGc1 trading up around 2% near a two-week high due in part to rising intake at LNG export plants.

Officials at Freeport declined to comment on the latest incident at the plant.

On Saturday, Freeport told Texas environmental regulators that liquefaction Train 2 shut down late on Friday due to an issue with a compressor system.

LSEG data showed that gas flows to Freeport were on track to hold at 1.9 billion cubic feet per day on Monday, the same as on Sunday, after dropping to 1.3 billion cubic feet per day on Friday and Saturday. That compares with an average of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day during the prior seven days.

The three liquefaction trains at Freeport are capable of turning about 2.4 billion cubic feet per day of gas into LNG.

One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.