LNG

The US Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said it would still take several months for the Freeport liquefied natural gas export plant to fully ramp up and to bring all processing Trains and other facilities on stream.

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.

US export plant Freeport LNG in Texas plans to undertake a facility overhaul of work and safety methods as it prepared to return to full production ramp-up by March 2023 after the shut-down caused by the June 8 fire in 2022.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it was awaiting further information from the Freeport LNG plant in Texas for the process to begin for a partial re-start during November and a full ramp-up in production by March 2023.

The FERC said in a statement that it required further information to allow the facility to come back on stream in November as planned.

Freeport was shut down on June 8 due to a pipeline explosion and the company has said that it expected the plant to return to at least partial service by mid-November and for supplies of 2.1 billion cubic feet per day to be received by pipeline.

The Quintana Island facility must also follow more safety orders issued by the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The PHMSA and the FERC have been discussing with Freeport LNG management “ongoing damage assessments, repair work plans and plans for restart” since the June 8 events.

Time for review

“FERC reiterates the need for Freeport to provide the status and schedule of implementing the findings, recommendations, and lessons learned resulting from the root cause investigation and assessments as soon as possible to allow sufficient review time,” the regulator has said.

Freeport LNG said it aimed to restore more than 85 percent of pre-fire processing capacity in November and to ramp-up the facility to 100 percent of capacity by March 2023.

“We continue to progress our work towards achieving the November restart of our liquefaction facility,” said Freeport LNG in a statement.

“That work includes completing the final repair and restoration efforts, completing required work plans and obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals required before the facility's restart,” added Freeport LNG.

The June 8 incident occurred in pipe racks that support the transfer of LNG from the facility's LNG storage tank area to the terminal's dock facilities located on the north side of the dock basin.

None of the liquefaction Trains, LNG storage tanks, dock facilities nor the LNG process areas were impacted and there were no injuries reported.

Expansion plan

Freeport LNG was founded by billionaire Michael Smith who is Chairman and Chief Executive. When the explosion occurred, Smith and his team were planning for an expansion from 15 million tonnes per annum of output from three Trains to 20 MTPA with the construction of a fourth Train.

The plant is the joint second-largest liquefaction facility in the US, from seven existing facilities, along with Cameron LNG and Corpus Christi LNG, and is surpassed in output only by the six-Train plant at Sabine Pass in Louisiana, owned by Cheniere Energy.

Freeport LNG's main customers include Japan’s largest importer JERA Co. Inc., the Japanese utilities Kansai Electric and Osaka Gas as well as South Korean company SK E&S and buyers in Europe.

During the first quarter of 2022 before the accident, the Freeport plant exported 55 cargoes mainly to import terminals in Europe and North Asia.

The US Freeport LNG plant in Texas now estimates that the resumption of partial liquefaction operations following the June 8 fire will be early October 2022 and with a year-end target for the resumption of full production.