Last week’s explosion that knocked the Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal offline continued to test the global gas market Monday, as prices in the United States were down and the supply disruption combined with others to push prices higher in Europe.  

Freeport LNG Development LP said it expects the terminal, which provides four to five cargoes weekly, to be offline for at least three weeks, but depending on the extent of the damage some think it could be longer. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

“News of the duration of the 2.0 Bcf/d Freeport outage could swing natural gas prices in either direction,” EBW Analytics Group senior analyst Eli Rubin said of the U.S. market. “In our view, odds favor a prolonged outage or reduced operations...