HOUSTON, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Freeport LNG Development, L.P. (Freeport LNG) today announced that the third of the company’s three LNG storage tanks has been returned to service with the approval of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The storage tank had been offline for nearly three years after LNG piping to the tank was damaged in the June 8, 2022 incident at Freeport LNG’s natural gas liquefaction and LNG export facility. Freeport LNG has worked collaboratively with local, state and federal regulators and other key stakeholders in every aspect of the company’s incident recovery effort. Returning the third LNG storage tank safely back into service is the final phase of the company’s recovery and restoration work that followed the incident.
“Today is a significant milestone for Freeport LNG as it marks the completion of the physical restoration of our facility after the June 8, 2022 incident. Getting to this point would not have been possible without the hard work and diligence of our employees and contractors,” said Michael Smith, Freeport LNG Founder, Chairman and CEO. “Freeport LNG has emerged from this incident as a more resilient company, with an enhanced safety focus based largely on process safety management initiatives implemented across the organization after the June 8th incident. While the physical restoration is complete, our efforts in continuous improvement in process safety and operational excellence will continue each day. Safety remains Freeport LNG’s top priority. I couldn’t be prouder of our employees and their hard work, and I thank them for all of their efforts and dedication.”
Since the incident, Freeport LNG has implemented significant improvements to its organization, doubling the size of its operations and maintenance workforce and strengthening key leadership positions across the company, including at President, CFO and COO, and in the areas of Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Process Safety, Environmental Health and Safety, Security, Marine Operations, Business Innovation and Treasury. By strengthening Freeport LNG’s organizational muscle and demanding high performance in all aspects of its business, these organizational improvements are delivering very positive early returns, including driving safe, reliable and sustained operational performance and increasing LNG throughput, all while maintaining a commitment to safety discipline that underpins the company’s achievement of an industry-leading safety record. Simultaneously with the company’s June 8th recovery efforts, the above organizational changes and its improvements in process safety and reliable operations, the company completed a debottlenecking project that increased its LNG production capacity. Over the past year, despite operating with only two of its three LNG storage tanks in service, Freeport LNG has safely achieved record LNG production rates, most recently achieving an all-time company record LNG production month in April 2025.
ABOUT FREEPORT LNG
Freeport LNG is an LNG export company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company’s three train, 17 MTPA liquefaction facility is the largest all-electric drive motor plant of its kind in the world, making it the most environmentally sustainable site of its kind. The facility’s electric drive motors reduce carbon emissions by over 90% relative to gas turbine-driven liquefaction facilities. Freeport plans to expand by adding a fourth liquefaction train, which has received all regulatory approvals for construction. Freeport was formed in 2002 to develop, own and operate an LNG terminal on Quintana Island, near Freeport, Texas. The terminal started LNG import operations in June 2008 and began LNG export operations in 2019. Further information can be found on Freeport’s website at www.freeportlng.com.
SOURCE Freeport LNG