US becomes third largest LNG exporter

When the data is finalised for 2019, the United States is expected to rank behind Australia and Qatar as the world’s third largest LNG exporter, shipping an estimated 34.4M tonnes of LNG to overseas buyers.

Supported by abundant supplies of shale gas and growing liquefaction capacity, the US has experienced a meteoric rise to the top that started with the first commercial LNG cargo shipped from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass in Louisiana in 2016. In back-to-back months, the US set records, shipping 52 cargoes averaging 5.8Bn ft³ per day (bcfd) in October and 55 cargoes, averaging 6.3 bcfd in November, according to the US Energy Information Administration (US EIA).

Since Cheniere’s historic cargo in February 2016 to November 2019, the US has exported 1,093 cargoes, totalling 3,569.2 bcf of natural gas from five LNG export terminals. This equates roughly to 74.3M tonnes of LNG. ISO tank containers shipped to Barbados, the Bahamas and Haiti represent less than 0.1% of exports and are not included in the totals.

The five LNG export facilities – Sabine Pass, Corpus Christi LNG in Texas, Cove Point LNG in Maryland, Cameron LNG in Louisiana and Freeport LNG in Texas – are all adding production capacity over the next two years. Cameron LNG commissioned its first train in May and Freeport LNG in September, while a sixth LNG export terminal, Elba Island LNG in Savannah, Georgia, shipped its first commercial cargo in October.