In its latest attempt as a prompt month, the September natural gas futures contract opened lower as stable production and approaching fall weather exceeded expectations for favorable government inventories.
However, concerns about a possible outage at the LNG plant in Freeport, Texas, followed by confirmation that the fire alarm was a false alarm, gave a boost late in the morning, raising fears of a potential disruption to liquefied natural gas supplies. The price increase continued until midday.
“This morning, during routine maintenance in the control room of Freeport LNG’s pre-treatment plant, a fire suppression system was unexpectedly activated,” a spokesperson for the plant said Wednesday. “There was no active fire at the plant and there was no danger to the surrounding community. In accordance with Freeport LNG’s safety protocols, when a fire suppression system was activated, the plant was immediately shut down and personnel in the affected area were evacuated. All personnel have been located and we are now actively working to resume operations.”
