Freeport LNG Maintenance Depresses U.S. Exports

Freeport Train 3 restarted on March 21. However, it is now the only train operational at Freeport LNG as Trains 1 and 2 are offline. Train 3 was damaged during the mid-January freeze and was taken offline for repairs in late January.

Trains 1 and 2 are offline for inspections, repairs, maintenance and debottlenecking work. Originally, Freeport planned to alternate Trains 1 and 2 so that the terminal would have two trains running at all times but now it has said that Trains 1 and 2 would be offline until May. The debottlenecking work being carried out is expected to increase the terminal's LNG output by 10%.

The terminal will return to full service in May and will likely need 2.1-2.2 Bcf/d of feedgas after that. The U.S exported 107 LNG cargoes in March, down one from February. The low level of exports has been driven by the outage at Freeport LNG.

The terminal exported only 10 cargoes in March, the lowest since February 2023 when it was just returning online following a 7-month outage due to an explosion in June 2022.

LNG exports will remain at this level in April as Freeport LNG will have only one train operational this month.