Latest news with #FreeportLNG
Reuters
6 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
US LNG output declines in May from April's record
HOUSTON, June 2 (Reuters) - U.S. liquefied natural gas output fell in May due to plant outages and maintenance at the country's largest export facility, preliminary LSEG ship tracking data show. The U.S. is the world's largest LNG exporter and monthly changes in production can impact global LNG prices. In May the U.S. exported 8.9 million metric tons of LNG, down from a record 9.3 MT in April, according to LSEG data. During May all U.S. plants experienced short periods of lower output when compared to April, the LSEG data showed, and Cheniere Energy (LNG.N), opens new tab confirmed that its 30 MT per annum (mtpa) Sabine Pass facility in Texas, the biggest in the nation, was undergoing maintenance work. Gas flows to Sabine have held at a 23-month low of around 3.1 bcfd since May 31. That compares with an average of 4.3 bcfd over the prior seven days. Freeport LNG, the U.S.' third largest LNG producer, also reported several outages. Europe remained the favored market for U.S. LNG exports as traders tried to take advantage of higher prices in Europe for the superchilled gas when compared to Asia. Gas prices at the European benchmark Title Transfer Facility (TTF) in the Netherlands rose to $11.68 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in May, up from $11.48 in April and an average of $10.12 in May 2024. Of the 8.9 MT of LNG exported from the U.S., 6.05 MT or 68% went to Europe, the same percentage as in April, LSEG data showed. Exports to Asia remained relatively low with 1.88 MT or 21% of total exports, compared to 2.05 MT or 22% of total exports in April, LSEG data showed. Stronger domestic production, pipeline imports, renewable generation and weak industrial demand have kept Chinese demand muted and China, the world's largest LNG user, continues to resell U.S. LNG to avoid paying retaliatory tariffs as the trade dispute continues between the world's two largest economies. Prices at the Asian benchmark Japan Korea Marker (JKM) slid to $11.83 per mmBtu in May, down from $12.23 in April but up from an average of $11.10 in May 2024. Exports to Latin America also fell with .66 MT sold in May compared to .68 MT in April. Egypt bought 3 cargoes for a total of .22 MT, while Bahrain bought one cargo for .07 MT. One cargo also left Cheniere's Sabine Pass plant on May 23, but as of Monday was in the Caribbean Sea with no clear destination, LSEG ship tracking data showed. The United States is poised to remain the world's largest LNG exporter with an expected 6 projects getting the financial go ahead in 2025, adding another 90 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG to the U.S. output by 2030.
Reuters
28-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Natural gas flows to Freeport LNG export plant in Texas drop Wednesday, sources say
HOUSTON, May 28 (Reuters) - Natural gas flows to a Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas declined on Wednesday, likely leading to a reduction in LNG output, two sources said. Freeport is the third largest LNG export facility in the U.S. and has helped the country remain the world's largest exporter of the superchilled gas. It is one of the most closely watched LNG export plants in the world because the start and stop of its operations can often cause price swings in global gas markets. It has a capacity to consume 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day and can produce 16.3 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG. When flows to Freeport drop, gas prices in the U.S. usually decline due to lower demand from the plant for the fuel. Meanwhile, prices in Europe usually increase due to a drop in LNG supplies available to global markets from the plant. Freeport declined to comment. Last Friday, the company experienced a brief power outage to one of its plants, commonly called trains, and had to take the plant out of service to cool down before eventually restarting it, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Freeport reported last Friday's trip was caused by the plant's compressor system, according to the TCEQ filing.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
FREEPORT LNG RESTORES SERVICE TO ITS THIRD LNG STORAGE TANK
HOUSTON, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Freeport LNG Development, L.P. (Freeport LNG) today announced that the third of the company's three LNG storage tanks has been returned to service with the approval of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The storage tank had been offline for nearly three years after LNG piping to the tank was damaged in the June 8, 2022 incident at Freeport LNG's natural gas liquefaction and LNG export facility. Freeport LNG has worked collaboratively with local, state and federal regulators and other key stakeholders in every aspect of the company's incident recovery effort. Returning the third LNG storage tank safely back into service is the final phase of the company's recovery and restoration work that followed the incident. "Today is a significant milestone for Freeport LNG as it marks the completion of the physical restoration of our facility after the June 8, 2022 incident. Getting to this point would not have been possible without the hard work and diligence of our employees and contractors," said Michael Smith, Freeport LNG Founder, Chairman and CEO. "Freeport LNG has emerged from this incident as a more resilient company, with an enhanced safety focus based largely on process safety management initiatives implemented across the organization after the June 8th incident. While the physical restoration is complete, our efforts in continuous improvement in process safety and operational excellence will continue each day. Safety remains Freeport LNG's top priority. I couldn't be prouder of our employees and their hard work, and I thank them for all of their efforts and dedication." Since the incident, Freeport LNG has implemented significant improvements to its organization, doubling the size of its operations and maintenance workforce and strengthening key leadership positions across the company, including at President, CFO and COO, and in the areas of Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Process Safety, Environmental Health and Safety, Security, Marine Operations, Business Innovation and Treasury. By strengthening Freeport LNG's organizational muscle and demanding high performance in all aspects of its business, these organizational improvements are delivering very positive early returns, including driving safe, reliable and sustained operational performance and increasing LNG throughput, all while maintaining a commitment to safety discipline that underpins the company's achievement of an industry-leading safety record. Simultaneously with the company's June 8th recovery efforts, the above organizational changes and its improvements in process safety and reliable operations, the company completed a debottlenecking project that increased its LNG production capacity. Over the past year, despite operating with only two of its three LNG storage tanks in service, Freeport LNG has safely achieved record LNG production rates, most recently achieving an all-time company record LNG production month in April 2025. ABOUT FREEPORT LNG Freeport LNG is an LNG export company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company's three train, 17 MTPA liquefaction facility is the largest all-electric drive motor plant of its kind in the world, making it the most environmentally sustainable site of its kind. The facility's electric drive motors reduce carbon emissions by over 90% relative to gas turbine-driven liquefaction facilities. Freeport plans to expand by adding a fourth liquefaction train, which has received all regulatory approvals for construction. Freeport was formed in 2002 to develop, own and operate an LNG terminal on Quintana Island, near Freeport, Texas. The terminal started LNG import operations in June 2008 and began LNG export operations in 2019. Further information can be found on Freeport's website at View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Freeport LNG Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
E&E News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Pipeline enforcement plunges in Trump's first months
Federal pipeline safety enforcement has fallen to unprecedented lows in the first few months of the Trump administration. No enforcement actions were launched in March, the first time in the 20-year history of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that no cases were initiated in a month. Before that, only one case was initiated in February. The tally inched up in April, with four cases. Advertisement Those numbers are from a brief period of time. Still, the steepness of the drop raises questions about whether the Trump administration's fervor to shrink government intervention could also mean diminished enforcement of existing safety standards. But PHMSA officials argue that's not a sign the agency will be less aggressive under President Donald Trump, saying their commitment to enforcement shouldn't be judged by the first three months of a new administration. 'Enforcement numbers from the beginning of an administration as a new team transitions are not indicative of long-term trends or a lack of commitment to enforcement,' said PHMSA spokesperson Emily Wong. But enforcement doesn't always drop during presidential transitions. In the first three months of Trump's first term in 2017, PHMSA filed 66 cases. Wong also said the agency has recently closed three cases with 'significant civil penalties.' That would include a $1.5 million fine paid by Freeport LNG from an explosion at its terminal south of Houston in June 2022. And the agency responded to two high-profile leaks, one on the Keystone oil pipeline in North Dakota and the other on a fuel line in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Case closure numbers have been robust in recent months, but not at record-breaking levels. PHMSA closed 26 cases in March and 13 in April. In the past, the agency has closed as many as 61 cases in one month: September 2010. The Biden administration closed seven cases last July and 12 in December. On average, PHMSA initiates about 18 cases per month. In Trump's first term, it averaged a little less than that. During the Biden administration, the average was slightly higher. Since PHMSA was established in November 2004, the most enforcement actions issued in a month was 65. Until this year, PHMSA had never issued fewer than three enforcement actions in a month. There could be other explanations for the decline, though agency officials did not offer them as reasons. The Trump administration has been aggressively culling the federal workforce with layoffs, firings and incentives to leave. Administration officials have said that employees in critical safety roles, such as inspectors and investigators, will be retained. But there are no official numbers on how many people left PHMSA, which had about 600 employees before the cutbacks began. And there's no public data on whether all safety-critical employees have remained. But the senior career leadership at PHMSA was largely cleared out, including the top career pipeline safety official, Alan Mayberry. He's one of at least eight career leaders who have left since Trump returned to the White House or are expected to leave. Trump has nominated Paul Roberti, general counsel to PHMSA in his first term, to lead the agency as administrator. The role requires confirmation by the Senate, which has taken no action on Roberti. The wait for a new administrator could be part of the slowdown, said Joseph Hainline, who was a PHMSA attorney before and during Roberti's tenure. 'I think you'll see it pick up as they get fully staffed once Paul gets there,' said Hainline, now a partner at the Van Ness Feldman firm. 'I think the first couple months are always sorting through the priorities, dealing with all of the top down changes from the administration.' The agency is currently being run by Deputy Administrator Ben Kochman, formerly director of pipeline safety policy at the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA). At PHMSA, he is serving as acting administrator. The chief counsel is Keith Coyle, a former PHMSA staff attorney who represented pipeline companies in private practice before his appointment. Former President Joe Biden never named a full-time PHMSA administrator during his four years in office. Whatever the reason, the recent decline in enforcement is concerning, said Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, the country's main pipeline safety advocacy group. It also raises questions about whether the agency is adequately overseeing safety, he said in an email. 'Regular, consistent enforcement helps keep our communities and the environment safe from the risks of pipelines,' Caram said, 'and substantial drops from established enforcement levels deserves our close attention.' The White House did not respond to a request for comment last week. Freeport LNG declined to comment. Keystone operator South Bow responded to a request for comment by pointing to the incident webpage for the leak. Energy Transfer, which operates the pipeline that leaked in Pennsylvania, didn't respond to a request for comment. But one industry leader said statistics don't always show the full breadth of an administration's approach to enforcement. 'While any administration can juice the numbers if they want with ticky-tack enforcement actions, we hope this administration will make a difference with an enforcement program that focuses on what is really meaningful for pipeline safety,' Andy Black, CEO of the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association, said in an emailed statement. Pipelines are an important symbol of Trump's energy agenda. One of his first acts as president in his first term was to boost two oil pipeline projects loathed by environmentalists and left-leaning groups: Keystone XL and Dakota Access. Trump's top oil and gas donor in last year's presidential election was pipeline mogul Kelcy Warren, the executive chair of Energy Transfer, which developed Dakota Access. Warren put $12.5 million, from personal funds and a company in which he has controlling interest, toward getting Trump back to the White House. Shortly after Trump took office, Energy Transfer challenged PHMSA's in-house regulatory system in court as 'unconstitutional.' Pipeline safety enforcement civil penalties shot up after Biden succeeded Trump in 2017. And during Biden's term, pipelines became an increasingly contentious part of the debate over climate change as the agency drafted a regulation to crack down on natural gas emissions from pipes and other energy infrastructure. PHMSA finished the rule in the final days of Biden's term, but the Trump administration hasn't implemented it and isn't expected to do so. When asked about the scarcity of enforcement actions, INGAA — which represents operators of interstate gas transmission lines — stressed the industry's commitment to safety. 'Safety is at the forefront of everything our members do, and our collective goal is zero incidents,' Amy Andryszak, the group's CEO, said in an emailed statement. 'This laser-like focus on safety and compliance should result in fewer enforcement actions.' The American Petroleum Institute, a major U.S. oil and gas trade group, said in an emailed statement that the industry 'remains committed to working with PHMSA to advance the safe and responsible operation of essential pipeline infrastructure that delivers affordable, reliable energy to Americans across the country.'
Business Recorder
08-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
US natural gas prices climb on return of Freeport LNG, lower output
NEW YORK: US natural gas futures climbed about 4% on Wednesday on a drop in output and forecasts for demand to rise more than previously expected this week, especially with the return to service of Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas from an outage on Tuesday. Gas futures for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 12.9 cents, or 3.7%, to $3.492 per million British thermal units at 9:50 am EDT (1350 GMT). Analysts said mild weather expected to last through late May should keep heating and cooling demand low, allowing utilities to continue injecting more gas into storage than normal for this time of year. Gas stockpiles were currently around 1% above the five-year normal. Inventories had been below normal from mid-January through late April after utilities pulled a monthly record 1.013 billion cubic feet of gas from storage in January to keep homes and businesses warm during extreme cold weather this winter. Some analysts said mild weather and record output this spring could allow energy firms to add record amounts of gas into storage in May. The current all-time monthly injection high of 494 bcf was set in May 2015. Financial firm LSEG said average gas output in the Lower 48 US states fell to 103.4 billion cubic feet per day so far in May, down from a monthly record of 105.8 bcfd in April. Since gas output hit a daily record high of 107.4 bcfd on April 18, production was on track to drop by around 5.5 bcfd to a preliminary 10-week low of 102.6 bcfd on Tuesday. Analysts have noted that preliminary data is often revised later in the day.
