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Natural Gas December 10, 2019 12:30:40 AM

US LNG Plants to Set Record With Freeport Train 2

Anil
Mathews
OilMonster Author
Contractor McDermott said on 6 December that Freeport train 2 had started LNG production.
US LNG Plants to Set Record With Freeport Train 2

SEATTLE (Oil Monster):  The six US LNG facilities are scheduled to receive a combined 7.956 Bcf (22.15mn m³) of gas today, which would be slightly higher than the daily record of 7.954 Bcf set yesterday, according to an analysis of pipeline nominations. The previous record of 7.67 Bcf was set on 28 November.

The volumes in the past two days represent 8.4pc of the record US dry-gas production of 95 Bcf/d reached in October. US production is forecast to remain near those levels throughout this winter.

Contractor McDermott said on 6 December that Freeport train 2 had started LNG production.

Freeport received 454mn cf of gas that day and 435mn cf/d on 7 December, enough to operate one train, although the facility on some previous days received enough gas to also send some supplies to the second train.

Intake increased to a daily record of 783mn cf yesterday and is scheduled to be the same volume today, likely indicating that production at train 2 has increased significantly. Freeport told Argus today that the higher flows are "all part of continued progress on the commissioning."

Freeport is building three liquefaction trains at the $15.5bn facility, each with peak liquefaction capacity of 5.31mn t/yr, equivalent to 700mn cf/d of gas. Baseload capacity for to meet long-term contractual obligations is 4.4mn t/yr (580mn cf/d) per train.

Train 3 is scheduled to start producing LNG in the first quarter next year.

Train 1 was placed into long-term service in November. Train 2 is scheduled to be placed into long-term service in the second half of January after testing is completed, and train 3 in the second half of April or early May.

Japanese utilities Osaka Gas and Chubu Electric Power each have 20-year contracts for 2.2mn t/yr, equivalent to about 296mn cf/d of gas, of Freeport export capacity from train 1. Osaka has sold about 800,000 t/yr of its capacity to German utility Uniper.

BP has a 20-year deal for 4.4mn t/yr, beginning when train 2 starts commercial operations. South Korean utility SK and France's Total each have 20-year contracts for 2.2mn t/yr, starting when train 3 begins commercial operations.

The customers are responsible for procuring their own feed gas and pipeline transportation capacity, and would pay Freeport a take-or-pay fee of about $3/mmBtu for their entire respective capacities.

Cheniere Energy's 25mn t/yr Sabine Pass LNG export terminal is the largest single-source consumer of US gas, with intake averaging 3.98 Bcf/d so far this month.

Gas flows to the Cameron LNG terminal in Louisiana has also increased recently with the ramp-up of the second 5mn t/yr liquefaction train, averaging 729mn cf/d so far this month after averaging 526mn c/d last month.

Courtesy: www.argusmedia.com


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