Us natural gas rose sharply in intraday trading after Freeport, a US liquefied natural gas exporter, reached an agreement with the US Pipeline and dangerous goods Safety Administration (PHMSA) to restart operations on Wednesday, Aug. NYMEX September natural gas futures closed 7.27 per cent higher at $8.2660 per million British thermal units, up 10 per cent in intraday trading.

Texas Freeport Gas said in an email statement that the terminal was closed due to an explosion in June and had reached an agreement with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to resume operations at almost full capacity in early October. This will increase natural gas demand by nearly 2 billion cubic feet a day, equivalent to about 2 per cent of US domestic production.

An earlier article on Wall Street mentioned that in June, there was a "small explosion" at the Texas Freeport LNG export terminal, about 105km south of Houston, which received about 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas. roughly equivalent to 2.5 per cent of the output of 48 states in the United States. At that time, US gas prices plummeted as the overseas supply of shale gas fuel ran aground, the export outlook was bleak and the domestic natural gas supply in the United States was easing.

However, US natural gas prices reversed their decline in June and continued to rise, boosted by the hottest weather since records began in July, with inflation as a key driver.

The restart of free port gas will further tighten America's tight pre-winter heating and power generation fuel stocks, with natural gas in salt caves and depleted aquifers about 12 per cent lower than the average at this time of year.

The United States became the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the first half of 2022 because of increased supplies to Europe during the crisis in Ukraine, according to data from the International Natural Gas Association (CEDIGAZ) cited by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on July 25. EIA said that compared with the second half of 2021, US LNG exports increased by 12 per cent in the first half of this year, reaching an average of 11.2 billion cubic feet per day.

EIA has previously said there are three reasons for the continued growth in US LNG exports: increased LNG export capacity, higher international natural gas and LNG prices, and increased global demand, particularly in Europe.

International natural gas and liquefied natural gas prices reached record highs in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first half of 2022. TTF, the European benchmark, has been trading at record highs since October 2021.