Working like the devil to keep prices lower

[Fraser921]

Apparently, the pipeline regulators didn't get the memo. They are slow rolling the restart of the facility

U.S. pipeline safety regulators said they found unsafe conditions at Freeport and will not allow the plant to restart until an outside analysis is complete.

“Based on the latest report, it would suggest that Freeport’s restart date will be significantly pushed back by more than the initial three-month shutdown period,” Ryhana Rasidi, gas/LNG analyst at data and analytics firm Kpler said.29dk2902l

Freeport, the second-biggest U.S. LNG export plant, was consuming about 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas before it shut on June 8. So long as the plant remains shut, that gas will remain in the United States and allow utilities to boost the country’s low stockpiles ahead of next winter.

Having that extra gas has already caused U.S. prices to drop over 40% from a near 14-year high over $9 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in early June just before the Freeport outage.

Front-month gas futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose 30.6 cents, or 5.6%, to settle at $5.730 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). On Thursday, the contract closed at its lowest since March 29.

[mrbill]

How does this affect those in Europe who are short natgas. Looks like the way to lower natgas prices is to shut down
terminals, why not some more?

[dan_s]

Europe is totally screwed regardless of when Freeport comes back online. Lots of Eastern Europeans are going to die this winter.