Freeport LNG Plant in Texas to Return to Service

U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas was on track to return to service on Thursday after shutting on Wednesday, LSEG data showed.

Freeport is one of the most-watched U.S. LNG export plants in the world because it has a history of swaying global gas prices when it shuts and restarts.

Energy traders, however, noted that gas prices around the world were little changed on Wednesday because Freeport said it was "actively working towards reestablishing operations." That convinced the market the outage would be brief, traders said.

On Wednesday, Freeport said it had shut the plant after a fire safety suppression system in the control room of the pretreatment facility unexpectedly activated during routine maintenance.

"We continue to work towards safely resuming our operations," a spokesperson for the company told Reuters in an email on Thursday.

The amount of gas flowing to the 2.1-billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) Freeport plant was on track to rise to 1.0 bcfd on Thursday, after falling to around zero on Wednesday, according to LSEG data. That compares with an average of 2.1 bcfd over the past month.

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

In a filing with Texas environmental regulators on Wednesday, Freeport said it was necessary to quickly take the plant's three liquefaction trains offline due to an interruption in gas supply from the pretreatment facility.

With Freeport now expected to pull in more gas, LNG feedgas to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport, was on track to reach 12.1 bcfd on Thursday, up from a one-month low of 11.2 bcfd on Wednesday.

That compares with an average of 12.8 bcfd so far in August, 11.9 bcfd in July and a monthly record high of 14.7 bcfd in December 2023.

(Reuters - Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by David Goodman and David Holmes)