Rising global exporter with resources to dominate world’s LNG supply in long term
The United States is now the world’s sixth largest LNG exporter (14.6 MMt in 2017), trailing Qatar, Australia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Indonesia. S&P Global predicts the United States will become the third largest exporter by 2020.
The story of US LNG exports is directly tied to the US shale revolution, which has led to the production of abundant, cheap natural gas. It has satisfied growing North American gas demand while driving interest in converting underutilized US LNG import facilities into LNG export terminals and building greenfield export projects. Five projects are under construction totaling 47.8 MMtpa of liquefaction capacity. More than 30 additional LNG export projects have been proposed. US LNG imports, conversely, have declined precipitously over the last several years and are used mostly to meet winter demand spikes in New England, a pipeline-constrained region.
