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March 2 (Reuters) - Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas
was on track to pull in about 1.2 billion cubic feet per day
(bcfd) of natural gas from pipelines on Thursday, Refinitiv data
showed, a sign it likely started the second of three
liquefaction trains at the plant.
The plant in Texas, the second-biggest U.S. LNG export
plant, started to exit an eight-month outage in February. That
outage was caused by a fire in June 2022.
Energy traders said any gas flows over 0.9 bcfd likely mean
Freeport LNG restarted the second of the plant's three
liquefaction trains since each train can turn about 0.7 bcfd of
gas into LNG for export.
LNG export plants also use some gas to fuel other equipment,
so flows above 0.7 bcfd do not necessarily mean the startup of a
second train, traders have said.
The plant pulled in about 0.8 bcfd of gas from Feb. 22-27,
0.9 bcfd on Feb. 28, 1.0 bcfd on March 1 and was on track to
pull in about 1.2 bcfd on March 2, according to Refinitiv data.
When operating at full power, Freeport LNG's three trains
can turn about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG for export.
Freeport LNG said last week that the plant could be
consuming about 2 bcfd of feedgas "over the next several weeks".
Some analysts, however, have said the plant will likely not
return to full capacity until the end of April.
Federal regulators have already approved the restart of two
liquefaction trains. On Monday, Freeport LNG asked regulators
for permission to restart the third.
The total amount of gas flowing to the seven big U.S. LNG
export plants, including Freeport LNG, jumped to 12.8 bcfd in
February from 12.3 bcfd in January. That is just shy of the
12.9-bcfd monthly record set in March 2022.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Jason Neely and
Shounak Dasgupta)
Messaging: scott.disavino.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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