According to tanker monitoring data, U.S. liquefied natural gas shipments reached monthly and yearly record highs in December. Analysts believe this puts the country in a strong position to overtake Australia and Qatar as the world’s top LNG exporter by 2023.

According to Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG research at consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group, the United States stood out among other countries in terms of the growth in the global LNG supply in 2023. In December, 8.6 million metric tonnes of LNG left U.S. terminals.

According to figures from the US government, Australia was the second-largest LNG exporter in 2022, behind Qatar.

“U.S. record production was driven by two factors: the return of Freeport LNG to full service, which added 6 MT and the full-year output of Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass facility that added 3 MT more than in 2022,” Munton said.

According to LSEG data, U.S. exports grew 14.7% to 88.9 million metric tonnes (MT) in the whole year, mostly due to the restart of the Freeport LNG plant, which had experienced a fire in 2022, and other improvements in processing efficiency.

The statistics provided by the financial information provider indicated that shipments were compared to 77.5 million metric tonnes in 2022.

With 5.43 MT, or slightly more than 61%, of US LNG exports, Europe remained the top destination in December. According to LSEG data, 68% of US LNG shipments in November went to Europe.

According to researchers at consultants Rystad Energy, the month-over-month decline was caused by higher storage levels and warmer-than-normal temperatures in Europe. As of early December, the European gas storage was almost 97% filled, according to the research.

With 2.29 MT, or 26.6%, of U.S. LNG shipments in December, Asia ranked as the second-largest export market, up from 18.5% in November. According to LSEG ship monitoring statistics, U.S. exports to Latin America accounted for half a million metric tonnes, or little less than 6% of overall exports.

After reaching a monthly record of 14.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd in December, natural gas flows to the seven major U.S. LNG export facilities have increased to an average of 14.9 bcfd so far in January. According to LSEG data, that exceeded the previous all-time monthly high of 4.3 bcfd in November.

On Tuesday morning, U.S. gas was trading at the Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana for $2.55 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) benchmark in Europe for $9.81 per mmBtu, and the Japan Korea Marker (JKM) in Asia for $11.52 per mmBtu.

However, according to LSEG data released on Tuesday, Russian LNG shipments to Asia decreased 11% to 14.9 million tonnes, while LNG exports to Europe decreased 1.9% to 15.8 million metric tonnes in 2023.

In reaction to the crisis in Ukraine, Europe substantially reduced its imports of Russian pipeline gas in 2023 while increasing its purchases of LNG from international suppliers.

Due to summer facility repairs, Russia’s total LNG shipments decreased by 6% to 31 million tonnes last year. However, in December 2023, 3.2 million tonnes of LNG were exported from Russia, a record amount of which came from Yamal LNG.

Preliminary LSEG data indicates that the majority of the exports came from Novatek, Russia’s largest LNG producer, which sent 800,000 tonnes from Kriogaz-Vysotsk on the Baltic Sea and 18.7 million tonnes from the Yamal LNG plant in the Arctic.

By 2023, Russia’s LNG exports to the Pacific were down 10% to 10.1 million tonnes due to the Sakhalin-2 project, which is led by Gazprom.

The medium-sized Gazprom LNG Portovaya plant, which began operations in September 2022, exported 1.4 million tonnes of LNG in 2023, primarily to Greece and Turkey. Three shipments, one of which travelled to China via the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route, were sent to China.

There were no comments on the issue from Novatek and Gazprom.

Millions of tonnes of LNG exported from the Novatek and Gazprom projects by shipping region in 2023 and 2022.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)

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