Freeport LNG is on track to take in more natural gas and soon restart one of its three liquefaction units following an outage that began on Sunday, the company managing the U.S. export facility told Texas regulators on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Freeport LNG was on track to receive 2.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas, up from 1.2 bcfd on Monday and compared to an average of 1.9 bcfd over the prior seven days, according to data from LSEG cited by Reuters.
All three trains at Freeport LNG have the capacity to liquefy about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG.
Train 1, one of the three liquefaction units at the facility, was shut down on Sunday because of issues with the compressor system, a company filing with the Texas environment regulator showed.
Freeport LNG has often shut parts of the plant due to various failures, and flows of natural gas to the plant and exports from it have varied wildly in recent years.
In March this year, Gulf South Pipeline Company suspended gas deliveries to Freeport LNG after a lightning strike that damaged its pipeline. The lightning strike prompted Gulf South Pipeline Company to declare force majeure on the pipeline, cutting supply to Freeport LNG to some 450 million cu ft daily.
Freeeport LNG is no stranger to adversity.
In 2022, the facility was damaged in a fire that shut it down for an extended period of time just when LNG imports from the United States were beginning to gain popularity in Europe. Before the fire, Freeport was exporting a fifth of all U.S. shipments of LNG to Europe. The plant remained partially offline until March 2023. Last year, Freeport LNG was shut down for almost a month in July ahead of Hurricane Beryl and after it.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com