Old Photo Shared as Recent Freeport LNG Plant Explosion

Misbar investigated the claim and found it to be misleading, as the photo dates back to October 2011 from a chemical factory fire in Waxahachie, Texas.

Photo Description: Article reporting on the fire in October 2011.

Fire in a Chemical Plant in Waxahachie, Texas

In October 2011, credible news sources reported a fire at the Magnablend chemical plant in the Waxahachie area of the United States state of Texas. Residents in the area were evacuated at the time due to the dangerous chemical emissions caused by the explosion.

The Recent Explosion of the Freeport Natural Gas Plant in the U.S

The claim sparked following the recent explosion at the Freeport facility, one of the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plants on the Texas Gulf Coast, as the company announced on June 8 that it would be closed for at least three weeks after assessing losses. The explosion caused European gas prices to rise, while futures contracts in the United States fell by 6% yesterday.

France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the Netherlands are among the countries on the Freeport export list for 2022, and will face gas shortages and higher prices.

The U.S Becomes World’s Leading Exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas

According to Bloomberg ship-tracking reports, Al Jazeera reported that the United States overtook Qatar as the world's leading "exporter of liquefied natural gas for the first time ever last month, as deliveries surged to energy-starved Europe." It was expected that US exports would help mitigate the severity of the global gas supply crisis, especially given Russia's ongoing political turmoil, which supplies the European Union with roughly 40% of its gas needs.

According to the findings, the photo is unrelated to the recent incident at the Freeport plant and is from the Magnablend chemical plant explosion in October 2011.

Translated by Dina Faisal