(Adds background)
March 8 (Reuters) - The amount of natural gas flowing to
U.S. liquefied natural gas company Freeport LNG's export plant
in Texas was on track to drop on Wednesday after the plant
exited an eight-month outage in February.
Gas flows to the plant in Texas were on track to reach just
0.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Wednesday, down from
1.0 bcfd on Tuesday, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
Officials at Freeport LNG had no comment.
The Texas plant shut after a fire in June 2022 and gas flows
to the plant peaked at about 1.7 bcfd on March 5, the data
showed.
When operating at full power, Freeport LNG, the
second-biggest U.S. LNG export plant, can turn about 2.1 bcfd of
gas into LNG for export.
Global demand for U.S. LNG increased after countries around
the world slowed their purchases of Russian oil and gas
following sanctions after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February
2022.
The combination of those sanctions and the Freeport LNG
plant shutdown helped drive gas prices to record highs in Europe and Asia during the summer of 2022.
U.S. regulators approved the restart of two of the Texas
plant's three liquefaction trains in February. Liquefaction
trains turn gas into LNG.
Freeport asked federal regulators for permission to restart
the third train and other parts of the plant on Feb. 27.
However, federal regulators had more questions on March 6 about
that request, which could delay the timing of the first train's
restart.
Gas flows to all big U.S. LNG export plants rose to an
average of 13.3 bcfd so far in March from 12.8 bcfd in February.
That would top the monthly record of 12.9 bcfd in March 2022,
before the Freeport LNG facility shut.
The seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport
LNG, can turn about 13.8 bcfd of gas into LNG.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Louise Heavens, Jason
Neely and Shounak Dasgupta)
Messaging: scott.disavino.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.