In a statement posted on its website, Freeport LNG Development, L.P. has announced that it has received regulatory approval to commence commercial operations of its natural gas liquefaction and export facility.
The company noted that the authorization provides for the immediate full return to service of one liquefaction train, which it says has already restarted, and the incremental restart and full return to service of a second train. The restart and return to service of Freeport LNG’s third liquefaction train will require subsequent regulatory approval once certain operational conditions are met, Freeport LNG said.
“A conservative ramp-up profile to establish three-train production of approximately 2.0 billion cubic
feet per day is anticipated to occur over the next several weeks as stable operation of each incremental train is established and maintained,” Freeport LNG said in the statement.
“Operations are initially utilizing two of Freeport LNG’s three LNG storage tanks and one of its two LNG berths. The second LNG berth and third LNG storage tank are expected to return to service in May. First LNG production and ship loading from the facility began on February 11,” the company added.
In the statement, Michael Smith, Freeport LNG’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, said, “returning to liquefaction operations is a significant achievement for Freeport LNG”.
“Over the past eight months, we have implemented enhancements to our processes, procedures and training to ensure safe and reliable operations, and significantly increased staffing levels with extensive LNG and petrochemical operating experience to reduce overtime, enhance operational excellence, and
improve quality assurance and business performance,” he added.
“Eight months of diligence, discipline and dedicated efforts by our teams, working collaboratively alongside the regulatory agencies and local officials, have positioned us to resume LNG production and commence ramp-up to the safe establishment of commercial operations of our liquefaction facility,” Smith continued.
In a statement sent to Rigzone this week, Rystad Energy Analyst Ade Allen said “Freeport LNG is back in the game and ready to ramp up exports again”.
Allen added, however, that “the news … that the facility has approval to restart production from one of its liquefaction trains, with a second train coming back online soon, couldn’t have come at a worse time for markets as prompt month Henry hub prices sank to multi year lows”.
“The March Henry Hub futures contract settled at $2.07/MMbtu on Tuesday and dipped below $2/MMbtu in overnight trading. The April contract, trading at around $2.13/MMbtu is now the prompt month as the March contract expires on Friday,” Allen went on to state.
On June 8, 2022, a statement posted on Freeport LNG’s official Facebook page announced that an incident had occurred at the Freeport LNG facility on Quintana Island at about 11.40 am. An update posted on the company’s Facebook page on the same day revealed that the incident had been stabilized and that the company was in the early stages of its investigation of the event.
Source: Rigzone
