By Marwa Rashad and Julia Payne
LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - The second biggest U.S.
liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant, Freeport, has
cancelled up to four shipments of LNG, due to restart snags
after an eight-month-long outage, trading sources told Reuters.
In addition, the facility has recently loaded another vessel
with a lower amount of gas than originally planned, two of the
sources added.
"You arrive with your vessel to load at a given time and
they say 'yes you can load', but then an hour later it doesn’t.
They blame the long shutdown for restart hiccups," a trading
source familiar with the matter said.
When contacted by Reuters, a Freeport LNG spokesperson said
that the company does not comment on commercial activity which
includes its cargo schedules.
The company said earlier this month that changes in feed gas
flows and production rates are to be anticipated, given the
duration of the plant’s outage as it continues the restart
process and the plant is expected to return to full production
over the next few weeks.
U.S. federal regulators have approved the restart of two of
Freeport LNG's three liquefaction trains (Trains 2 and 3) in
February and the third train (Train 1).
Accounting for 20% of U.S. LNG exports, resumption of the
facility is important for global LNG supplies, especially as
Europe is rebuilding its gas storage after Russia cut gas
exports following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Current demand for LNG in Europe is not as high as
previously due to a mild winter, high inventory levels and
reduced industrial demand.
But demand could rise again amid forecasts of a hot summer,
low hydro levels and an uptick in Chinese demand after the
easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
When operating at full power, Freeport can turn about 2.1
billion cubic feet per day of gas into LNG for export.
(Reporting by Marwa Rashad and Julia Payne in London,
additional reporting by Emily Chow in Singapore; Editing by Nina
Chestney)
Messaging: marwa.rashad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
