U.S. liquefied natural gas export company Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas was on track to pull in small amounts of natural gas on Monday after shutting on July 7 before Hurricane Beryl hit the Texas coast, according to data from financial firm LSEG.
Freeport is one of the most-watched U.S. LNG export plants because it has a history of swaying global gas prices when it shuts.
Since Freeport shut, U.S. gas futures have declined by about 2% to a two-month low of $2.26 per million British thermal units (mmBtu).
The amount of natural gas flowing to Freeport was on track to reach about 0.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Monday, up from near zero from July 7-14, according to LSEG data. Beryl hit the Texas coast on July 8.
Energy traders, however, noted that Freeport was also on track to pull in similar amounts of gas late last week but ended up pulling in almost no gas.
Officials at Freeport were not immediately available for comment but have said over the past several days that they had no comment on the plant’s status since announcing it would shut before Beryl hit the Texas coast.
In the week before Freeport shut, the 2.1-bcfd plant was pulling in an average of about 1.7 bcfd of gas, according to LSEG data.
With Freeport down, feedgas to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport, has averaged about 11.8 bcfd so far in July, down from 12.8 bcfd in June and a monthly record high of 14.7 bcfd in December 2023.
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 David Evans)