U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export company Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas started pulling in small amounts of natural gas on Thursday after shutting on Sunday before Hurricane Beryl smashed into the Texas coast, 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.
The amount of natural gas flowing to Freeport was on track to reach about 0.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Thursday, up from near zero from July 7-10, according to LSEG data. Beryl hit the Texas coast on July 8.
In the week before Freeport shut, the 2.1 bcfd plant was pulling in an average of about 1.7 bcfd of gas.
Despite the increased gas flows to Freeport, feedgas to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport, was on track to drop to an 11-week low of 11.1 bcfd on Thursday due to small declines at other LNG export plants.
That is down from 11.3 bcfd on Wednesday and an average of 12.1 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.
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 Chris Reese and David Holmes)