Freeport LNG full output to resume around Nov. 20 amid pre-treatment train repairs

Feedgas demand at Freeport LNG was slowly rebounding Nov. 8 as repairs to one of the pre-treatment trains at the Texas export facility were taking longer than first estimated.

The pre-treatment train remained out of service following an unspecified incident that occurred Oct. 31. Full production was expected to resume around Nov. 20, about two weeks later than first estimated, a spokesperson said in an e-mail responding to questions.

Gas deliveries to the facility south of Houston registered 1.4 Bcf/d on Nov. 8, based on nominations for the morning cycle. That came after gas deliveries fell to 476 Mcf/d on Nov. 5, the lowest level since Sept. 17, when the entire facility was offline due to an interruption in power caused by damage from Hurricane Nicholas, S&P Global Platts Analytics data showed. Before the latest disruption, feedgas demand was at about 2 Bcf/d.

The incident involving the pre-treatment train occurred the same day as a separate power trip involving a compressor that temporarily knocked liquefaction Train 2 offline. The pre-treatment trains are located on the mainland and separated from the liquefaction units that are on a small island nearby.

The operator of the 15 million mt/year capacity Freeport LNG terminal 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.

Freeport LNG has offtake commitments with Japanese utilities JERA and Osaka Gas, each of which also hold 25% stakes in an entity that controls the terminal. France's TotalEnergies controls over 2.2 million mt/year of LNG from the third train at Freeport LNG. It inherited that commitment when it acquired Toshiba's US LNG business in 2019.