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Explosion at liquefied natural gas plant in Freeport Texas 7

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Some background on the Freeport LNG plant.
How Michael Smith Built A $14 Billion Natural Gas Plant In Texas | Forbes

Looks like the downward pressure is smaller than we hoped, or perhaps the market takes longer to react.
Screenshot_from_2022-06-12_07-29-41_c5kfbr.png
 
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A/C season is beginning in US. I doesn't look like anybody is planning on using less A/C in the expected hotter weather. 3 weeks down time isn't going to affect this market with anything but up pressure everywhere.

That chart is a slowdown in the rise before a top breaking up. No signal of decreasing price anywhere in that. Drops after middle peaks are decreasing. Plenty of upward pressure to spare. You need three peaks at the same price level to have any significant drop. All arrows are up.

A black swan to a turkey is a white swan to the butcher ... and to Boeing.
 
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I live within a half hour drive of that terminal.

FacEngrPE - I didn't watch the video but I'm under the impression that when the Freeport LNG terminal was first begun (5-10 yrs ago?) it was going to be a natural gas IMPORT terminal. But as the picture shifted and US sources of fossil fuels/gas became more plentiful, the function was changed to export.

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(2B)+(2B)' ?
 
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"Freeport released a statement yesterday explaining that the explosion resulted from “the overpressure and rupture” of part of an LNG transfer line. That released a gas vapor cloud, which ignited. The fireball touched off a fire that burned other equipment in the plant. The company release said the LNG vapor cloud was contained within the fence line of the plant and lasted only 10 seconds, while the secondary fire burned for 40 minutes."

"The description of last week’s accident, attributed in part to “overpressure,” offers similarities to an earlier incident at the site. In August 2019, Freeport personnel were opening the first production line, or “train.” PHMSA officials say a pipe failed because the supercooled liquid was being forced, at 917 pounds per square inch, through a pipe designed to handle no more than 90 pounds per square inch.

Further investigation revealed the pipe was flawed and possibly not fit to handle the cryogenic temperatures of LNG. In an enforcement report, agency officials said there were hundreds of feet of such pipe in the facility."


There was an "overpressure" event in a flawed piping system ? ..... I do not like the sound to that

Piping that was "possibly not fit to handle the cryogenic temperatures of LNG" ...... WTF does that mean !!!!!????

Is this carbon steel piping segment installed by mistake in a cryogenic system ????

I do not like this MBA-Speak, lawyer mumbo jumbo ......

What do you think ???

This is 20% of the US LNG stock going through FREEPORT ....

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer
 
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Yes I believe it was initially supposed to be for import of LNG. Meaning a few cold lines and lots of warm lines. I can imagine that when they turned the process around, a lot of warm design temperature pipe turned into cold design temperature pipe and v/v, but nobody wanted to think about either low temperature pipe, nor pipe stress reversals.

In any case, it is relatively good news for US domestic consumers, as domestic gas prices have been rising directly with export capacity coming onstream. Domestic price pressure is down, but may still be held up by the dynamic world market to some extent (80%).

A black swan to a turkey is a white swan to the butcher ... and to Boeing.
 
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> one of only two export terminals in the world, that use electric motors instead of natural gas turbines to drive liquefaction compressors,

Yeah, weird choice. If I remember correctly they had to run some new lines in to support their electric load. And it's not like they don't have the gas available to run the turbines.

> The Freeport facility can produce about 2 Bcf/d of LNG from three trains.

It we interpret it literally, 2 billion cubic feet of LIQUIFIED natural gas per day would correspond to 1.2 trillion cubic feet/day in gaseous state! (assuming 600:1 volume ratio)
I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing they were trying to find a brief way to say that they convert 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas into liquid per day.

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(2B)+(2B)' ?
 
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It's 2B SCF, Standard Cubic Feet.
US maximum total gas production is around 100-110 BSCF/Day.


A black swan to a turkey is a white swan to the butcher ... and to Boeing.
 
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so you are referring to (standard condition) cubic feet of gas. again a simplistic literal reading would be cubic feet of liquid. the terminology just seemed a little clumsy to me.

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(2B)+(2B)' ?
 
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Yeah. I guess you just have to know the convention is to always talk SCF of gas. I'm sure the author never gave a single thought that someone might think it was something else. Just goes to show the importance of always carrying units with the numbers. All numbers.

A black swan to a turkey is a white swan to the butcher ... and to Boeing.
 
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Following the PHMSA string MJCronin uncovered,
Federal Enforcement Data FREEPORT LNG DEVELOPMENT, L.P. (Operator ID:32206 - CURRENTLY ACTIVE OPID)

The only enforcement activity open at the time of the current incident was the consent letter from the 2019 pipeline rupture. Link.
From the consent letter the 2019 incident resulted in a requirement to inventory all components manufactured from a specific heat, and then create a return to work plan, which was to include some long term monitoring provisions (which might be the reason this action is still open). The RWP is not posted in the public record.
 
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So ..... I am confused ..

Is there any ongoing investigation of this very serious accident by a regulatory/government third party ?

Or is this just a huge ..... "no big deal, Lets skip it".... moment ?

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer
 
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I am guessing here but I think based on the enforcement actions on the website, the plant is under the remit of PHMSA, so there will likely be an investigation, but PHMSA stuff tends to have a slower publishing schedule than the NTSB.
The Freeport LNG website newsroom has a posting dated June 14.
[URL unfurl="true" said:
http://freeportlng.newsrouter.com/news_release.asp?intRelease_ID=9744&intAcc_ID=77[/URL]]The incident occurred in pipe racks that support the transfer of LNG from the facility’s LNG storage tank area to the terminal’s dock facilities located on the intracoastal (i.e., north) side of Freeport LNG’s dock basin. None of the liquefaction trains, LNG storage tanks, dock facilities, or LNG process areas were impacted. In coordination with local, state and federal officials, Freeport LNG’s investigation into the cause of the incident, and what steps are necessary to safely resume liquefaction operations, is underway. Preliminary observations suggest that the incident resulted from the overpressure and rupture of a segment of an LNG transfer line, leading to the rapid flashing of LNG and the release and ignition of the natural gas vapor cloud. Additional investigation is underway to determine the underlying precipitating events that enabled the overpressure conditions in the LNG piping.
Click to expand...
 
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From LinkedIn; ....... Mr. Geoff Cruickshank
Energy and critical infrastructure security specialist
Edited • 1 week ago

The "explosion" at an LNG plant in Texas might be misreported.
Looking at the footage it appears more likely that the LNG leak was caused by a dropped object, possibly a result of a equipment failure whilst lifting over live plant. The Emergency Response Team are using water spray to direct the vapor cloud away from other parts of the plant, as well as controlling vaporization and boundary cooling. It also highlights the importance of field operators discussing the product in the pipe with the work group when signing on work permits.

The excellent safety record of LNG production means that footage like this is very rare, and will be examined by LNG operations teams to gain insights on how to react in the unlikely event of similar incidents on their facilities. The power of the LinkedIn professional network meant that this footage was discussed in pre-start meeting safety discussions in facilities on the other side of the planet less than 2 hours after the initial event occurred.

Thanks to Mehdy Touil for sharing.

Edit: Appears that in fact there was an explosion and significant fireball that blew itself out. Good footage from nearby CCTV.




MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer
 
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