Freeport LNG Development LP said Tuesday it is still planning to restart its facility toward the end of the year one day after FERC sent a 16-page letter asking it to address dozens of issues before operations can resume.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sent two separate documents requesting information on 64 questions, only one of which was made available to the public because of security reasons.
The questions were developed with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard after a visit in late November to the liquefied natural gas plant on the upper Texas coast. The questions also included follow-ups to information provided by Freeport since a June explosion knocked it offline.
“Authorization for restart operations will only be granted following the review of filed responses, a determination that the facilities are fit for service and documentation that acceptable measures have been put into place to safely return the facilities to operation,” the Commission wrote in its letter. Responses, it said, should be filed “without delay.”
Freeport spokesperson Heather Browne told NGI the company had received the engineering information request and was reviewing it.
“We continue to work collaboratively with regulatory agencies and will provide necessary information to those agencies so that we can obtain authorization for the safe, initial restart of our liquefaction facility,” she said.
The operator of the 2.38 Bcf/d terminal previously said it could repair the damage and restart around the middle of November. It later pushed its plans back to mid-December and then again by another two weeks to the end of the year.
FERC has asked for a litany of information, including plans to conduct an emergency drill prior to restarting operations that involves local first responders, details about contractors, requests for technical information about the plant’s operating systems, training for personnel, and further questions about the root cause failure analysis, among other things.
