The amount of natural gas flowing to Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas fell close to zero on Sunday as Hurricane Beryl roared towards the Texas coast, with the amounts set to remain near zero on Monday, according to data from financial firm LSEG.
Freeport is one of the most-watched U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants because it has a history of swaying global gas prices when it shuts.
“We have safely ramped down production at our liquefaction facility and intend to resume operations once it is safe to do so after this weather event,” officials at Freeport LNG told Reuters on over the weekend.
Before Beryl approached the Texas coast, feedgas to the 2.1-bcfd facility averaged around 1.7 bcfd from June 30 to July 6, according to LSEG data.
With Freeport down, gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport, was on track to drop to an 11-week low of 11.0 bcfd on Monday, down from 11.1 bcfd on Sunday and an average of 12.5 bcfd over the prior seven days.
Freeport is the nation’s third-biggest LNG export plant behind Cheniere Energy’s 4.5-bcfd Sabine Pass in Louisiana and 2.4-bcfd Corpus Christi in Texas.
Despite Beryl, other LNG export plants located near where Beryl made landfall were still expected to pull in gas on Monday, including Sabine at about 4.3 bcfd of feedgas, Corpus at about 2.3 bcfd and Cameron LNG in Louisiana at about 1.8 bcfd, according to LSEG data.
Each of Freeport’s three liquefaction trains can turn about 0.7 bcfd of gas into LNG.
One billion cubic feet is enough gas to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Arun Koyyur)