Atlantic LNG prices jump on Freeport outage, Ukraine attack

Supply concerns gave a jolt to the Atlantic LNG prices April 11, as the market remained vigilant to an outage at Freeport LNG and attacks in Ukraine.

The Platts Gulf Coast Marker also saw a significant jump following the news, rising 66 cents/MMBtu on the day to be assessed at $8.42/MMBtu.

This marks the highest GCM has been since Jan. 5 when Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the market at $9.19/MMBtu.

Across the Atlantic, the Platts DES Northwest Europe Marker for May was assessed at $9.044/MMBtu April 11, up 67.9 cents/MMBtu. Platts last assessed NWE higher on Jan. 12 at $9.42/MMBtu.

The gain followed an outage at Freeport LNG's export terminal in Texas, whose Train 3 liquefaction unit experienced a trip on April 10, the operator disclosed in a report with the state environmental regulators.

In a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Freeport said that Train 3 tripped offline due to an issue with a flow meter before midnight April 9, lasting until mid-afternoon April 10.

Feedgas flows to the export facility dropped to about 179 MMcf/d April 11, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed, based on nominations for the morning cycle that could later be revised.

Sentiment was further heightened by a Russian attack on Ukraine's gas storage system.

Two Ukrainian underground storage sites were targeted by Russia early April 11, causing damage to infrastructure at the facilities, state-owned storage operator UkrTransGaz said.

Despite the damage, the facilities are not thought to play a significant strategic role for Europe as a whole, but the market can still be wary by infrastructure attacks nonetheless.

"Not sure the attacks affect the ability to withdraw gas from the storages," one Atlantic-based LNG trader said. The trader added that the region already being well stocked helped to calm the reaction.