Freeport LNG restores Quintana Island Plant after Outage

Freeport LNG announced on Monday that its plant in Quintana, Texas has resumed full operation following an outage caused by unstable electricity from its supplier Center Point Energy last week.

Last Tuesday, the third largest U.S. supplier of super-cooled gas halted its liquefaction operations after announcing that it had intermittent power outages following winter storm Enzo and would be offline until transmission conditions stabilised.

Freeport is among the most closely monitored LNG export plants around the world, as the start-up or halting its operations can cause large price swings on global gas markets.

The U.S. exports the most LNG in the world.

Gas prices in the U.S. typically drop when flows to Freeport decrease due to the lower demand from the export plant for the fuel. Prices in Europe may increase due to an increase in LNG cargoes.

A company spokesperson announced on Monday that "Freeport LNG’s liquefaction operations have resumed in a safe manner."

According to data provided by financial firm LSEG, Freeport is on course to surpass 2 billion cubic foot (bcf), the second day in a row that it has done so. Curtis Williams reported from Houston, and Sherin Varghese from Bengaluru.

(source: Reuters)