根据 2 月 2 日公布的一份文件，美国第二大液化天然气出口商自由港液化天然气公司 (Freeport LNG) 正在寻求联邦监管机构的批准，开始在其位于德克萨斯州长期闲置的出口工厂将液化天然气装载到船上。

弗里波特工厂于 6 月发生火灾，并被禁止重新启动，直到联邦监管机构完成广泛的安全审查并批准由此产生的变更。

具体而言，自由港在向美国联邦能源管理委员会（FERC）提交的文件中表示，“恢复一号码头液化天然气装载服务将使自由港能够重新开始正常的液化天然气船舶停靠和装载业务。”

自由港公司要求监管机构在 2 月 3 日之前做出回应，该公司还表示，将液化天然气装载到船上将“在 1 号和 2 号储罐内创造库存空间，以期获得该工厂三套液化装置之一的商业运营机构授权” 。

2 月 1 日，FERC 批准了自由港公司的第三条液化生产线开始生产液化天然气的请求。

液化列车将天然气转化为液化天然气。

在自由港最近要求重启部分出口工厂后，美国天然气期货周四上涨 5%，高于前一交易日 21 个月低点。

能源市场关心自由港，因为随着该工厂越来越接近抽取大量天然气来制造液化天然气，天然气价格可能会上涨（如 2 月 2 日发生的情况）。

Freeport 每天可将约 2.1 Bcf 的天然气转化为液化天然气。这大约占美国每日天然气产量的 2%。

然而，分析师预计自由港要到三月中旬或更晚才能达到满负荷运转。

能源咨询公司 EBW Analytics 的分析师在一份报告中告诉客户：“自由港可能要到 3 月中旬才能恢复全部运营实力，从而将非常疲软的天然气供需基本面进一步推向 2 月中下旬。”

日本最大的电力公司 JERA 是自由港的五个最大客户之一，该公司本周表示，不指望在 3 月底之前从该工厂获得液化天然气。

这次停电迫使包括 JERA 和大阪燃气在内的大客户蒙受了数亿美元的损失。其他大买家包括 BP、TotalEnergies 和 SK E&S。

Freeport LNG, the second biggest U.S. LNG exporter, sought approval from federal regulators to start loading LNG onto ships at its long-idled export plant in Texas, according to a filing made available on Feb. 2.

The Freeport plant shut in a fire in June and was barred from restarting until federal regulators completed an extensive safety review and approved resulting changes.

Specifically, Freeport said in its filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that "reinstatement of Dock 1 LNG loading services will allow Freeport to recommence normal LNG ship dockage and loading operations."

Freeport, which asked regulators for a response by Feb. 3, also said loading LNG onto ships will "create inventory space within [storage] Tanks 1 and 2 in anticipation of obtaining agency authorization for commercial operation of" one of the plant's three liquefaction trains.

FERC approved Freeport's request to start producing LNG in the third liquefaction train on Feb. 1.

The liquefaction trains turn natural gas into LNG.

U.S. gas futures rose as much as 5% on Thursday, up from a 21-month low in the prior session, following Freeport's latest request to restart parts of the export plant.

The energy market cares about Freeport because gas prices will likely rise (as happened on Feb. 2) as the plant moves closer to pulling in large amounts of gas to make LNG.

Freeport can turn about 2.1 Bcf of gas into LNG each day. That is about 2% of total U.S. daily gas production.

Analysts, however, do not expect Freeport to reach full capacity until mid-March or later.

"It is likely that Freeport will not regain full operational strength until mid-March furthering very weak supply/demand natural gas fundamentals into mid-to-late February," analysts at energy consulting firm EBW Analytics told customers in a note.

Japan's largest power company JERA, one of Freeport's five top customers, said this week that it was not counting on getting LNG from the plant by the end of March.

The outage forced big customers including JERA and Osaka Gas to book hundreds of millions of dollars of losses. Its other big buyers include BP, TotalEnergies and SK E&S.