The amount of natural gas flowing from pipelines to Freeport LNG's long-idled export plant in Texas was on track to jump on Feb. 13 to its highest level since the facility shut due to a fire in June 2022, evidence that the plant has started liquefying gas again.

Gas flows were on track to reach 0.5 Bcf/d on Feb. 13, up from an average of just 34 MMcf/d from Jan. 26 through Feb. 11, according to data provider Refinitiv.

Federal regulators approved the company's plan to start cooling parts of the plant on Jan. 26.

On Feb. 10, the first LNG vessel - the Kmarin Diamond - arrived at Freeport since the plant shut eight months ago.

The tanker, which has already left the facility and is on its way to the Suez Canal in Egypt, picked up LNG from Freeport to create space in the storage tanks for the new LNG expected to be produced once the company started sending feedgas to Train 3.

Train 3 is one of three liquefaction trains at Freeport that turn gas into LNG for export. The process of producing LNG at Freeport likely started on Feb. 12 when it pulled in about 0.2 Bcf/d of gas and was continuing on Feb. 13 with the facility expected to pull in about 0.5 Bcf/d, according to Refinitiv data.

A unit of British oil major BP Plc, one of Freeport's big customers, operates Kmarin Diamond. There is already another vessel at Freeport - the Prism Agility - according to Refinitiv ship tracking data.

Kmarin Diamond is operated by another of Freeport's customers, South Korea's SK E&S, according to ship brokers.

The increase in feedgas flows to Freeport boosted the total amount of gas going to all seven of the big U.S. LNG export plants to around 13.3 Bcf/d, the highest since May 2022 before the Freeport facility shut.

That helped push gas futures prices higher by about 2% on Monday to around $2.57/MMBtu. Last week, gas futures fell to a 25-month low of $2.34/MMBtu as mostly mild weather this winter kept heating demand low.

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