Freeport LNG anticipates a month-long outage for one of the gas liquefaction units at its Texas facility following technical issues during Winter Storm Heather, as disclosed by the company on Friday. Winter Storm Heather caused a deep freeze in Texas, leading to heightened demand on the state’s power grid. The problem arose with a refrigeration electric motor at the liquefaction facility, requiring replacement with a spare motor on hand, according to a company spokesperson. Specifically, Train 2 of Freeport’s three liquefaction units ceased operations on Jan. 16 and Jan. 22, while Train 3 halted on Jan. 17, as reported in filings with Texas environmental regulators.
Each of Freeport’s three trains can convert approximately 0.7 billion cubic feet per day of gas into LNG. To provide context, one billion cubic feet of gas can meet the daily energy needs of about 5 million U.S. homes. The overall natural gas flow to the seven major U.S. liquefied natural gas export plants has decreased by around 6% in January compared to the record high in December. This decline is primarily attributed to the slow recovery of feed gas following the Arctic freeze experienced last week.
This restriction in LNG supplies isn’t a huge loss to the global market but with increased EU and UK dependence on American LNG supplies, its definitely a variable market participants will be watching closely over the coming weeks.
