The U.S. has overtaken Qatar to become the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the very first time in the industry's history.
The development comes hot on the heels of the U.S. being named the world's top crude oil producer heading in to 2024. However, topping the LNG exporters' league is considered even more remarkable. That's because the U.S. only joined the LNG export market as recently as 2016.
Different datasets compiled at the end of 2023 confirm the market ascendancy of U.S. exports. According to LSEG data, full-year LNG export volumes from the U.S. rose to 88.9 million metric tons (MT), while Bloomberg data appears to suggest a number in the region of 91.2 million MT.
The figures represent an uptick of around 15% in export volumes for 2023 on an annualized basis, driven in the main by improved processing efficiencies and a return to full production of the Freeport LNG plant following outages caused by a fire in 2022.
It also offers a confirmation of trends many in the energy community were already picking up on. That's after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in September that the country had exported more LNG than any other global producer at the midway point of 2023.
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The U.S. has benefited from rising domestic shale gas production and a growing demand for natural gas globally. More so as Europe increasingly turned its back on piped gas from Russia, following Moscow's decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
Most export cargoes head out of LNG terminals on the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana for primarily European, Asian and Latin American destinations. However, according to the EIA, five countries - the Netherlands, the U.K., France, Spain and Germany - are currently importing well over half of total U.S. LNG exports.
And industry sources suggest the trend will hold up in 2024 in a fiercely competitive European market that's scrambling for viable natural gas supplies faced with an "anyone but Russia" political and economic reality.
Furthermore, things will likely get rosier for U.S. exporters in 2024-25 after the first phase of Venture Global LNG Inc.'s Plaquemines LNG Terminal (Louisiana) comes onstream this year, followed by its second phase the year after.
This will likely be in near tandem with Golden Pass LNG Terminal (Texas) that's expected to see its first flows in H1 2025. Both projects could ramp up U.S. exports by another 38 million MT per year.
