Freeport LNG in Texas recovers from second brief reduction this week, LSEG data shows

Aug 20 (Reuters) - U.S. liquefied natural gas company Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas was on track to take in more natural gas on Wednesday, LSEG data showed, a sign that a second short-term outage this week at one of its liquefaction trains has likely ended.

Freeport is one of the world's most closely-watched LNG export plants because starts and stops of its operations often cause price swings in global gas markets.

When flows to Freeport drop, gas prices in the U.S. usually decline due to lower demand from the export plant for the fuel. Prices in Europe, meanwhile, usually increase, due to a drop in LNG supplies available to global markets from the plant.

Prices in the U.S. fell to a nine-month low on Wednesday due in part to lower gas flows to LNG export plants. Prices in Europe, however, were little changed for reasons not necessarily related to Freeport. NGA/ NG/EU

Freeport told Texas environmental regulators on Tuesday that one of three liquefaction trains at the plant, Train 2, shut on Tuesday due to a problem with a compressor system.

On Monday, Freeport said Train 1 at the plant also shut due to a problem with a compressor system on Sunday.

Officials at Freeport were not immediately available for comment.

LSEG said the amount of gas flowing to Freeport was on track to reach 1.9 billion cubic feet per day on Wednesday, up from a two-week low of 0.7 bcfd on Tuesday. That compares with an average of 1.9 bcfd last week.

The three liquefaction trains at Freeport are capable of turning about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG.

One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day.