US Freeport LNG export plant in Texas confirms various Train shutdowns for overhauls through early May
The US Freeport LNG export plant on Quintana Island in Texas has announced scheduled shut-downs of its liquefaction Trains for repairs and maintenance and de-bottlenecking to boost output in the future.
US Freeport LNG plant gives update on re-start plans in 2023 amid repairs and safety overhaul after fire
Freeport LNG has provided an update on its re-start plants stretching into the first quarter of 2023 because of repairs and production and operational changes.
Investigation underway on Freeport LNG fire and explosion but reports suggest damage has been limited
An investigation is under way into the explosion at the Freeport liquefied natural gas export plant at Quintana Island in Texas that could reduce US Gulf Coast cargo shipments for up to three weeks, though the overall damage was now said to be limited.
US LNG plants begin scheduled maintenance this month starting with Texas and Louisiana facilities
The amount of feed-gas flowing to US liquefied natural gas export plants is expected to decline over the next two months as scheduled maintenance programmes begin at export facilities in Louisiana and Texas.
Japanese monthly LNG imports jump amid stocks rebuild while thermal coal shipments also surge
Japan’s liquefied natural gas imports jumped by 7.3 percent last month, backed by a more than doubling of US supplies, underpinned by cargoes from Australia and the spot market, while thermal coal shipments surge by almost 11 percent.
ConocoPhillips-operated Australia-Pacific LNG plant ships 500th cargo and destination is China
The Australia-Pacific LNG plant in Queensland, owned by ConocoPhillips, Australian utility Origin Energy and Chinese major Sinopec, has shipped its 500th cargo, with the destination being China.
Woodside extends shutdown of Pluto LNG plant until end of June because of technical issue
Australian LNG plant operator Woodside said its Pluto LNG plant maintenance was completed as planned, though technical issues mean the single-Train facility would remain offline until the end of June.
The Pluto plant is on the Burrup Peninsula of Western Australia about 190 kilometres northwest of the port of Karratha.
The facility has 4.8 million tonnes per annum of output and is a lucrative business for Woodside and its foundation customers are the Japanese utilities Tokyo Gas and Kansai Electric.
“The mixed refrigerant compressor has experienced vibration on restart,” said Woodside.
“As a result, further activities extending the turnaround have commenced to achieve the restart of production,” added the company.
“Woodside has made arrangements to meet obligations to our customers, including the purchase of third-party cargoes,” stated the Perth-based company.
Woodside also operates the North West Shelf plant near Karratha and is a stakeholder in the Wheatstone facility, the third onshore plant in Western Australia operated by US major Chevron Corp.
In the first quarter of 2019, Pluto achieved output of 1.08MT, slightly lower than 1.10MT logged in the year-ago quarter and returned revenues of US$591M.
The Pluto cargoes were sold at an average price of US$10.0 per MMBtu compared with US$9.0 per MMBtu in the same quarter of 2018.
The plant has been on stream since 2012 and Woodside is planning an expansion that is expected to add 10 MTPA of output from two additional Trains.
Woodside has said that after its strong performance in 2018 and in early 2019 it was looking forward to sanctioning more than US$30 billion of new LNG projects.
The company’s Browse Basin offshore development will provide additional feed-gas for the NWS plant and would cost around $US20.5Bln, while the Scarborough gas field project, including the expansion of Pluto, would cost about $US11Bln.
