Systemic Failures Led To Explosion That Shut Texas Gas Plant

The blast at a massive Texas gas export plant last June was caused by inadvertently removed overpressure protection and closed valves, federal regulators said Saturday in its first in-depth public review of the incident.

The regulators revealed never-before-seen photos from the Freeport LNG explosion that included a large fireball, mangled equipment and a piece of pipe thrown hundreds of feet away. They added that another projectile severed equipment that impacted local water supply.

Two days before the explosion, a plant operator submitted a report noting something was wrong, with a pipe having been out of place. But no senior Freeport ...