Freeport LNG's Texas export plant back at full power, data shows
March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas was on track to pull in as much natural gas from pipelines as the facility can process into LNG, a sure sign that it was back at full power, according to data provider Refinitiv.
The plant has been slowly pulling in more feedgas since the end of an eight-month outage in February, having shut after a fire in June 2022.
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Freeport LNG said it had no comment on the increase in gas flows to the plant.
Gas flows to Freeport LNG were on track to rise to 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Thursday, up from 1.8 bcfd on Wednesday.
When operating at full power, the three liquefaction trains at Freeport LNG can turn about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG.
One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day.
Demand for U.S. LNG increased after several countries slowed purchases of Russian energy and imposed sanctions on Moscow after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The combination of those sanctions and the Freeport LNG shutdown drove gas prices to record highs in Europe and Asia last summer.
Total gas flows to all seven big U.S. LNG export plants have risen to an average of 13.1 bcfd so far in March, up from 12.8 bcfd in February.
That would top the monthly record of 12.9 bcfd in March 2022 before Freeport LNG shut.
The seven big U.S. LNG export plants, including Freeport LNG, can turn about 13.8 bcfd of gas into LNG.
On a daily basis, preliminary figures show feedgas flows to U.S. LNG plants were on track to hit a record high of 14.4 bcfd on Wednesday, which would top the daily record of 14.2 bcfd on March 5.
LNG export plants pull in more gas than they can process into LNG to run the equipment used to liquefy gas. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino Editing by Jan Harvey and David Goodman)