Freeport LNG utilization falls sharply as pre-treatment train undergoes maintenance

One of Freeport LNG's pre-treatment trains will remain down for about a week as it undergoes maintenance following an unspecified incident that occurred Oct. 31, the operator said in an email to S&P Global Platts on Nov. 4.

That incident occurred the same day as a separate power trip involving a compressor that temporarily knocked liquefaction Train 2 offline.

Feedgas demand at the Texas export terminal was down by almost 1 Bcf/d on Nov. 4 compared with levels seen before the disruptions.

"The cause of the incident is under investigation," Freeport LNG said, referring to what happened at the pre-treatment facility, which is on the mainland and separated from the liquefaction units that are on a small island nearby. "The duration of the train's outage is anticipated to be approximately seven days, pending further evaluation."

After the separate power trip on Oct. 31, the operator was able to restart liquefaction Train 2 after a cooldown period, according to an air emissions notice to state regulators. Freeport LNG is the only US liquefaction facility that uses electric motors exclusively instead of natural gas turbines to drive the liquefaction compressors on its trains.

Feedgas deliveries to Freeport LNG fell in the days after the two disruptions. On Nov. 4, based on nominations for the morning cycle, gas deliveries to the terminal stood at about 1.1 Bcf/d, compared with about 2 Bcf/d on Oct. 30, the day before the disruptions, Platts Analytics data showed.

At the 15 million mt/year capacity Freeport LNG terminal, the operator had previously planned to reduce the number of loadings at the facility through up to early November due to a planned maintenance outage on a segment of pipeline that feeds gas to the terminal, a person familiar with the decision said Oct. 22.