U.S. liquefied natural gas company Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas was on track to take in more natural gas on Thursday, two days after one of the plant’s three liquefaction trains shut, according to a company filing with state regulators and gas flow data from financial firm LSEG.
Freeport told Texas environmental regulators on Wednesday that the plant had an emissions event after liquefaction train 2 shut Tuesday night due to an issue with a compressor system.
Officials at Freeport LNG were not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
Freeport is one of the world’s most closely watched LNG export plants because the start and stop of its operations often cause price swings in global gas markets.
When flows to Freeport drop, gas prices in the U.S. usually decline due to lower demand from the export plant for the fuel. Meanwhile, prices in Europe usually increase due to a drop in LNG supplies available to global markets from the plant.
Prices in the U.S. and Europe, however, did not react much on Wednesday or so far on Thursday.
LSEG said the amount of gas flowing to Freeport was on track to reach 1.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Thursday, up from 1.6 bcfd on Tuesday and 1.7 bcfd on Wednesday. That compares with an average of 1.9 bcfd over the prior seven days.
The three liquefaction trains at Freeport are capable of turning about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG.
One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Susan Fenton)