U.S. regulator finds unsafe conditions at Freeport LNG export facility
(Reuters) - A U.S. pipeline safety regulator said it found unsafe conditions at a Texas liquefied natural gas export facility and will not allow owner Freeport LNG to restart the plant until an outside analysis is complete.
A June 8 blast and fire knocked out Freeport LNG's Quintana plant, which exports about 15 million tonnes per year of the chilled fuel. The preliminary finding by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) indicates a partial restart could not happen before September.
"Continued operation of Freeport's LNG export facility without corrective measures may pose an integrity risk to public safety," PHMSA said in its preliminary report.
A Freeport LNG spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The closely-held company has said the likely cause of the blast was an over-pressurized pipeline and that the plant's ability to chill natural gas into a liquid for export was not damaged.
An isolated safety valve led a 300-foot pipe to become overpressurized, releasing LNG and methane into the facility and leading to the blast, PHMSA said in its report.
The outage of an export facility that was a major consumer of U.S. natural gas has sharply cut domestic prices. On Thursday, prices for August delivery fell 7% to $6.050 per MMbtu with the contract on track for a monthly drop of 26%.
(Reporting by Gary McWilliams)
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