Freeport LNG On Track to Return to Full Production

U.S. liquefied natural gas company Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas was on track to take in more natural gas on Thursday after a small reduction on Wednesday, a sign the plant was heading back to full power, according to gas flow data from financial firm LSEG.

Officials at Freeport LNG had no comment.

Freeport is one of the most closely watched LNG export plants in the world because the start and stop of its operations often cause price swings in global gas markets.

When flows to Freeport drop, gas prices in the U.S. usually decline due to lower demand from the export plant for the fuel. Meanwhile, prices in Europe usually increase due to a drop in LNG supplies available to global markets from the plant.

That is part of what happened on Wednesday when U.S. gas prices NGc1 dropped about 6%. 

LSEG said the amount of gas flowing to Freeport was on track to reach a preliminary four-month high of 2.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Thursday, up from 2.0 bcfd on Wednesday and an average of 2.0 bcfd over the prior seven days.

The three liquefaction trains at Freeport are capable of turning about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG.

One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.

(Reuters/Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Editing by Bernadette Baum and Tomasz Janowski)