Page 12 - NorthAmOil Week 04 2023
P. 12

NorthAmOil                             PROJECTS & COMPANIES                                       NorthAmOil











































       Freeport completes repairs and




       requests to restart facility





        TEXAS            FREEPORT LNG said on January 23 that repairs  Rigzone that “Freeport LNG’s restart will sup-
                         at its plant on Quintana Island, Texas, had  port US LNG exports this year, but the timing
                         been completed. The US’ second-largest LNG  remains uncertain”, adding that a full ramp-up
                         exporter therefore requested permission from  was not likely until mid-year.
                         US regulators to begin steps towards restarting   Meanwhile, on January 11, Freeport LNG
                         the facility. The export terminal has been offline  stated to Oilprice.com that there was “no change   Prior to being
                         since an explosion and subsequent fire erupted  to our restart timeline. We are still targeting the
                         on June 8.                           second half of this month for the safe, initial   taken offline,
                           A filing sent to the US Federal Energy Regula-  restart of our liquefaction facility, pending reg-
                         tory Commission (FERC) has asked for approval  ulatory approvals.”       Freeport had been
                         to begin cool-down of the Loop 1 transfer pip-  Previously, Freeport LNG had stated that
                         ing and reinstate the terminal’s boil-off gas man-  repair and improvement work at the facility  supplying about
                         agement compressors and associated piping,  would be completed in December, but was   15% of US LNG
                         a procedure that would need about 11 days to  forced to readjust its timeline to build in time for
                         complete.                            any potential delays in regulatory approval.  exports.
                           If granted, it would mark a first step towards   Consequently, the facility’s restart date has
                         bringing the facility back to full operations.  shifted from mid-November to late January,
                         When operating normally, the facility has a  according to the company.
                         liquefaction capacity of over 15mn tonnes per   According to data from Kpler, at least four
                         year (tpy), equivalent to roughly 2.2bn cubic feet  LNG vessels have been chartered by BP, SK
                         (62.3mn cubic metres) per day of gas.  Group and German utility RWE with Freeport
                           The facility has been prohibited by FERC  LNG listed as the destination, with estimated
                         from restarting production until the comple-  arrivals at the end of January.
                         tion of an extensive safety review and approval   Prior to being taken offline, Freeport had
                         granted of the resulting changes.    been supplying about 15% of US LNG exports.
                           Widespread speculation has swirled around   Natural gas prices rebounded by 10% on Jan-
                         Freeport’s restart date. On January 20, Rys-  uary 23 following the Freeport news, after plung-
                         tad Energy vice president Emily McClain told  ing more than 50% over the past four weeks.™



       P12                                      www. NEWSBASE .com                        Week 04   26•January•2023
   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17