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Texas Freeport LNG Reportedly Operating At Full Capacity

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Full operations have resumed at Freeport LNG in Texas, following outages and repairs that have been ongoing for weeks, pushing American natural gas prices lower and causing a rise in LNG prices to Europe. 

According to Reuters, citing LSEG data, LNG tankers began loading this week, with one tanker having departed with cargo on Tuesday and a second docked at the terminal on Wednesday. Three other tankers are waiting offshore for their turn to load. 

A Freeport LNG spokesperson confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that operations have been restored to full capacity, with natural gas usage sitting at 2.1 billion cubic feet on Wednesday. That volume is the highest in a year, Reuters said, citing LSEG. 

Freeport LNG’s full capacity is 15 million metric tons annually. Each of the plant's three liquefaction trains has a capacity of processing around 0.7 billion cubic feet per day of gas into LNG.

In April, exports of LNG from the U.S. fell for a fourth month in a row due to Freeport’s struggles with operational issues and outages. U.S. LNG exports fell to 6.19 million metric tons in April, down from 7.61 million tons in March. Europe’s share in this volume fell from 57% in March to 52.5% in April. 

Freeport LNG has three natural gas-processing trains, but since January 2024, has been operating without at least one of those, which left the export plant working below 80% of its capacity. In turn, that has reduced overall LNG exports from the U.S. 

Full operations have now resumed earlier than some analysts had anticipated. 

Earlier this month, Reuters cited Energy Aspects analyst David Seduski as warning clients in a note that he still believes that “Freeport will not reach its typical summer utilization near 90% until June, at the earliest, given its previous struggles to complete maintenance in a timely manner.”