Freeport LNG gas flows have dropped, according to reports, signaling another technical issue at the facility on the Gulf Coast and slamming natural gas prices.

According to a report from Reuters, anonymous sources said the natural gas intake at the LNG facility in Freeport, Texas, fell on May 28 and would likely affect LNG production.

Front-month futures prices at the Henry Hub fell $0.21, or 6%, from the start of trading on May 28 to the $3.19/MMBtu at the close of the business day.

The Freeport LNG plant has been exporting LNG since 2019 and has an intake capacity of 2.2 Bcf/d. The plant’s output is great enough that equipment malfunctions can cause major swings to the market price.

A spokeswoman for Freeport LNG said the company had no comment on the report.

In 2022, a fire at the facility caused major damage to its tank systems. The last storage tank damaged in the episode just began operations again over the last month following approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  

The high volumes of electricity required by the plant’s trains have also caused numerous service outages.

On May 23, the company filed a report to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) that a trip in a train’s compressor system had caused a brief outage.

The company had experienced the outage at one of its trains, and had to take the plant out of service to cool down before eventually restarting it, according to the filing with the TCEQ.

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