The United States is growing to become the largest liquefied natural gas supplier in the world. Since opening its first export terminal in 2016, the U.S. has added to its liquefaction capacities in every year. Although it had long been an LNG importer, the surge in domestic natural gas production following the development of unconventional extraction methods, allowed the U.S. to build out its export infrastructure. By the end of 2022, annual
The U.S. liquefaction landscape
Liquefaction is the process by which natural gas is cooled until it reaches its liquid state, reducing its volume and thereby making it easily trade- and storable. This affords new economic opportunities to producers such as the U.S. as they may trade with consumer markets unreachable by pipelines. The majority of U.S. export capacity is concentrated along the Texas and Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass was the country’s first export terminal to begin operation and remains the
largest LNG terminal by capacity in the U.S. and also the world. Through its operation of Sabine Pass, Cheniere Energy has become a major player in the world's LNG market. As of 2022, it was the company with the
second-largest LNG exporting capacity and responsible for nearly two quadrillion British thermal units worth of
LNG sales in 2021.
Surging trade volumes and export prices
In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, LNG trade has become even more visible, profiting from diminishing pipeline shipments between Russia and the European continent. One of the immediate results was a notable uptick in
monthly LNG imports from the U.S. to the EU. Although East Asian countries have so far been the largest U.S. export markets for LNG, U.S. traders have benefited from European leaders looking for alternatives to Russian natural gas. With
monthly LNG export prices buoyed by the rise in commodity prices, the 2022 annual
U.S. LNG export value could well exceed the previous year’s peak.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
