Ships Queue at Freeport LNG Plant in Texas as Full Operations resume

LNG tankers began loading at Freeport LNG in Texas this week as full operations resumed at the liquefied natural gas export plant after repairs and maintenance, data from financial firm LSEG showed on Wednesday.

Outages at the second-largest U.S. liquefaction plant have pushed U.S. gas prices lower and raised LNG prices in Europe in the past. The plant, which has been undergoing repairs for several weeks, has resumed full operations, a Freeport LNG spokesperson confirmed.

The Shinshu Maru LNG tanker was moored at Freeport LNG’s terminal on Wednesday, and Flex Vigilant departed on Tuesday, LSEG data showed.

Three other LNG tankers – the Ignacy Lukasiewicz, the LNG Enterprise and the Prism Courage – are waiting offshore to load, according to the LSEG data.

Natural gas use at the plant was 2.121 billion cubic feet on Wednesday, the highest since May 2023, the LSEG data showed. The plant can produce up to 15 million metric tons of LNG per year.

In late March, Freeport had said it expected two of the three liquefaction trains, Trains 1 and 2, to remain shut until May for inspections and repairs, while Train 3 was operating. However, Train 3 shut, at least temporarily, around April 11.

Each of the plant’s three liquefaction trains can turn about 0.7 billion cubic feet per day of gas into LNG.

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

(Reporting by Harshit Verma in Bengaluru and Curtis Williams in Houston Editing by Matthew Lewis)