U.S. LNG company Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas was on track to take in more natural gas on May 7 after shutting on May 6, a sign the plant was exiting an outage, according to gas flow data from financial firm LSEG.

Officials at Freeport LNG had no comment.

In a report to Texas environmental regulators late on May 6, Freeport said the three liquefaction trains at the export plant shut that morning due to an incoming power feed interruption.

Power problems - especially during storms - have shut Freeport in the past, and there were storms in the area on May 6.

Freeport is more sensitive to power outages than other U.S. LNG plants because it uses electric motors instead of gas turbines to drive liquefaction compressors.

Freeport is one of the most closely watched LNG export plants in the world because the start and stop of its operations often cause price swings in global gas markets.

When flows to Freeport drop, gas prices in the U.S. usually decline due to lower demand from the export plant for the fuel. Meanwhile prices in Europe usually increase due to a drop in LNG supplies available to global markets from the plant.

That is what happened on May 6 when U.S. gas prices dropped about 3%, and it is what is happening on May 7 with U.S. gas prices up about 4%. 

LSEG said the amount of gas flowing to Freeport was on track to reach 1.8 Bcf/d on May 7, up from 0.3 Bcf/d on May 6 and an average of 1.9 Bcf/d over the prior seven days.

The three liquefaction trains at Freeport are capable of turning about 2.1 Bcf/d of gas into LNG.

One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about 5 million U.S. homes for a day.

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