Accidents

Yesterday we brought you the news that it appears the Freeport LNG export facility, down since early June due to a pipeline explosion, won’t be back online until early next year (see Analysts Now Predict Freeport LNG Not Back Online Until January). In that post we mused about why it’s taking so long to fix a pipe and return the facility to exporting 2.1 Bcf/d of natural gas. Perhaps we now have a better understanding. Yesterday, Freeport issued a press release summarizing the results of a third-party, five-month investigation into what happened and why. The press release is a summary of the “root cause failure analysis report” they got back.
Read More “Freeport LNG Releases Reasons for Pipeline Explosion on June 8”

The Freeport LNG export facility, located in Quintana Island, Texas (near Houston), experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see Explosion Rocks Freeport LNG Export Plant – Offline for 3 Weeks). The plant has been offline since that time. Plant management previously said it expected to resume operations sometime this month, in November. Indeed, with three LNG cargo carriers parked just off the Freeport coast and a fourth on the way, it certainly appeared the facility was getting ready to restart. But not anymore. While nobody from Freeport is talking on the record (yet), Bloomberg is reporting that Freeport has spoken with customers to let them know the facility probably won’t be ready to restart until January.
Read More “Analysts Now Predict Freeport LNG Not Back Online Until January”

The Freeport LNG export facility, located in Quintana Island, Texas, has been offline since June due to an explosion and fire. Liquefying just over 2 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of natural gas, including some Marcellus/Utica gas, Freeport is the second largest LNG exporter in the country. Three weeks ago, Freeport announced the plant would be mostly back online and producing 2 Bcf/d sometime in October (see Freeport LNG Signs Agreement w/PHMSA to Restart 2 Bcf/d in October). Yesterday the company backtracked and said no, it would now be November, not October, before the plant returns to near-full operation.
Read More “Freeport LNG Restart Timeline Slips from October to November”

The second-largest LNG export terminal in the U.S., Freeport LNG, located near Galveston, Texas, experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see Explosion Rocks Freeport LNG Export Plant – Offline for 3 Weeks). Thankfully nobody was injured, and it did not take long to extinguish the fire. The incident took the plant offline for “at least three weeks,” which later turned into months (at least until October). Freeport was quick to declare the incident a force majeure or unforeseeable act of God, which takes the facility and the buyers of its LNG off the hook for legally-binding contracts to deliver LNG. But what’s this? Freeport has, according to Reuters, retracted or rescinded its declaration of force majeure.
Read More “Freeport LNG Creates Confusion by Retracting Force Majeure”

The second-largest LNG export terminal in the U.S., Freeport LNG located near Galveston, Texas, experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see Explosion Rocks Freeport LNG Export Plant – Offline for 3 Weeks). A week later, officials announced the facility would likely not return to partial service until September (see NYMEX NatGas Down 20% in Single Day on Freeport LNG Bad News). The target date has changed again. Freeport officials now say the plant won’t be back online for partial service until at least October.
Read More “Freeport LNG Says 2 Bcf/d Export Plant Offline Until October”