Freeport LNG likely restarts 2nd liquefaction train at Texas export plant
March 2 (Reuters) - Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas was on track to pull in about 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas from pipelines on Thursday, Refinitiv data showed, a sign it likely started the second of three liquefaction trains at the plant.
The plant in Texas, the second-biggest U.S. LNG export plant, started to exit an eight-month outage in February. That outage was caused by a fire in June 2022.
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Energy traders said any gas flows over 0.9 bcfd likely mean Freeport LNG restarted the second of the plant's three liquefaction trains since each train can turn about 0.7 bcfd of gas into LNG for export.
LNG export plants also use some gas to fuel other equipment, so flows above 0.7 bcfd do not necessarily mean the startup of a second train, traders have said.
The plant pulled in about 0.8 bcfd of gas from Feb. 22-27, 0.9 bcfd on Feb. 28, 1.0 bcfd on March 1 and was on track to pull in about 1.2 bcfd on March 2, according to Refinitiv data.
When operating at full power, Freeport LNG's three trains can turn about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG for export.
Freeport LNG said last week that the plant could be consuming about 2 bcfd of feedgas "over the next several weeks". Some analysts, however, have said the plant will likely not return to full capacity until the end of April.
Federal regulators have already approved the restart of two liquefaction trains. On Monday, Freeport LNG asked regulators for permission to restart the third.
The total amount of gas flowing to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport LNG, jumped to 12.8 bcfd in February from 12.3 bcfd in January. That is just shy of the 12.9-bcfd monthly record set in March 2022.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Jason Neely and Shounak Dasgupta)