Freeport LNG Flirts with Level 3 Nitrogen Alert
Freeport LNG’s inert gas problem has reared its head once more. The daily average nitrogen mol% at the Stratton Ridge delivery point along the Coastal Bend Header (CBH) which supplies the majority of feedgas for Freeport LNG (black line on graph below), began ramping up on February 2nd (just in time for Groundhog Day) and has held above the level 1 alert (0.8 mol% nitrogen, yellow line in graph below). What is troublesome for the liquefaction trains, is the nitrogen’s flirtation with the level 3 alert (1.0 mol% nitrogen, red line in graph below). Over 1mol% nitrogen is a problem for Freeport LNG, in part due to the facility’s difficulty in handling excessive nitrogen. Although Gulf South makes up over half of the nitrogen delivered into CBH, they do not report flow data with accompanying gas quality for the connections near Freeport LNG, only for connections into CBH, making it difficult to finding a clear source of the nitrogen making it’s way into CBH.
