U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export company Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas was on track to pull in more natural gas on Tuesday 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 in the world because it has a history of swaying global gas prices when it shuts.
On Monday, U.S. gas futures dropped about 7% to a 10-week low after it became clear to the market that Freeport would likely continue to operate at less than full power for several more days.
Freeport said on Monday that it would restart one of the plant’s three liquefaction trains this week and the other two shortly after repairing damage sustained in the hurricane.
That is a later return to full power than many market watchers were expecting. Energy traders said U.S. gas demand and prices would remain reduced until all of the trains at Freeport return to service.
The amount of gas flowing to Freeport was on track to reach about 0.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Tuesday, up from near zero from July 7-15, according to LSEG data. Beryl hit the Texas coast on July 8. Officials at Freeport had no comment on the latest expected increase in feedgas.
In the week before Freeport shut, the 2.1-bcfd plant was pulling in an average of 1.7 bcfd of gas, according to LSEG data. But with Freeport starting to take in more gas, feedgas to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport, was on track to rise to a 10-day high of 11.5 bcfd on Tuesday, up from 11.2 bcfd on Monday and an average of 11.3 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 five million U.S. homes for a day.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino Editing by Mark Potter)