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U.S. natural gas futures rose on Wednesday, paring earlier losses as cold weather appeared to outweigh expectations that the restart of the Freeport LNG export plant would be delayed, making liquefied natural gas more liquid. vessels to separate the plants soon.
The Nymex gas futures (NG1: COM ) for December delivery is flat +2.7% at $6.20/MMBtu, the contract’s fourth gain in the past five quarters.
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The US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released a report by a third-party consultant that blamed the June explosion that shut down Freeport LNG on inadequate production and testing procedures, such as a lack of valve testing methods, failure to replace alarms that could have alerted operators. rising temperatures, and human error and fatigue.
PHMSA’s report did not indicate that the plant, which accounted for ~15% of US LNG exports before the explosion, would resume operations.
Freeport LNG previously kept the plant on track to restart in November, but the company has not specified a date for the restart in recent days, and Bloomberg reported this week that Freeport had told buyers it expected to be out until December.
Gas prices have been supported in part by concerns about a US rail strike, which could disrupt the delivery of coal to utilities, forcing generators to burn more gas; seven organizations have approved the labor agreements while three organizations have rejected the agreement.
