Thanks to strong European demand, the United States has emerged as the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), worldoil.com recently said.
It’s the first time America has ever taken the top spot. The rankings were related to December’s numbers.
"Overseas buyers purchased 13% of U.S. gas production in December, a seven-fold increase from five years earlier when most of the infrastructure required to ship the fuel out of the country didn’t yet exist,” the report said.
Answering Europe’s calls for the fuel let the United States edge past Qatar, a perennial leading exporter, and Australia. Production sites including Sabine Pass and Freeport posted high increases in their output, giving the United States the ability to edge out the other countries.
For the year, America sent out a record 1,043 cargoes in 2021. About half of its LNG exports went to Asian countries, and one-third to Europe. Europe's demand was important because the region is suffering a winter energy crisis as its utilities have seen reserves dwindle.
America has made the shift from an LNG importer to the top exporter thanks, in part, to a shale gas revolution and huge investments in liquefaction facilities, the report said. Since 2010, natural gas production has grown by nearly 70%. With Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass terminal getting ready to come online, the United States is expected to have the world's largest export capacity by the end of the year.
Even with that, though, holding on to the top exporter will be a challenge for a couple of reasons. First, Qatar and Australia did not trail far behind the U.S. numbers. Second, Qatar is planning a huge expansion in its production throughout the rest of this decade. By the middle years of the decade, Qatar’s LNG output is expected to increase by 40% to 110 million tons per year, Reuters reported.
“Qatar and the U.S. will be vying for being the largest LNG producers in the world over the next decade,” Muqsit Ashraf, senior managing director of Accenture’s global energy practice, said.