What happened

Brunei LNG announced on 20 November 2024 that it had experienced an 'operational upset' at its Lumut liquefaction facility, characterized by visible flaring and elevated noise levels, which the company explicitly stated did not involve an explosion or fire and caused no injuries or asset damage. The company said internal designated teams were actively managing the situation and working toward operational recovery, and described the controlled flaring as an expected part of managing an operational upset. Brunei LNG's facility has a design capacity of about 6.7 million tonnes per year and had been exporting at a rate of roughly 4.75 million tonnes per year, with more than half of cargoes destined for Japan and the remainder split among China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand; Japan imported about 2.225 million tonnes from Brunei during January-September 2024, roughly 4.5% of its total LNG imports. At the time of reporting, end-users had not been notified of any schedule changes, and Japanese buyer JERA said it saw no confirmed impact on its winter gas procurement. This is documented as a disclosed operational disruption, not an attack.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.