U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Freeport LNG’s export plant in Texas was expected to take in more natural gas on Wednesday after shutting Tuesday during Tropical Storm Nicholas, according to pipeline data from Refinitiv.
Energy traders said that likely means the plant was returning to service. LNG facilities liquefy natural gas into super-chilled LNG and also use the gas to fuel operations.
Officials at Freeport were not immediately available for comment on the plant’s status.
On Tuesday, Freeport said all three liquefaction trains at the plant shut likely due to power outages from Tropical Storm Nicholas.
At its peak Tuesday morning, Nicholas knocked out power to more than 529,000 homes and businesses in Texas, mostly in the Houston area. Freeport is located on the Gulf Coast about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Houston.
Refinitiv said Freeport was expected to pull in about 0.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas on Wednesday, up from 0.1 bcfd on Tuesday. That compares with an average of 2.0 bcfd that the plant pulled in over the past 30 days.
The National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory on the storm Wednesday morning when Nicholas was a Tropical Depression located near the Texas-Louisiana border that was still capable of causing life-threatening flash floods along portions of the Central Gulf Coast during the next couple of days.
The three other U.S. LNG export plants along the Gulf Coast – Cameron LNG’s Cameron in Louisiana and Cheniere Energy Inc’s LNG.A Corpus Christi in Texas and Sabine Pass in Louisiana – continued to operate through the storm.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Scott DiSavino, editing by Louise Heavens and David Evans)