The photo is sourced from vesselfinder.com
LNG exports from the United States increased by 16% (by 39 mln m3/day) in 2022, reaching 286 mln m3/day. This was achieved thanks to the launch of the Calcasieu Pass LNG project, which has a capacity of 36 mln m3/day. In the first half of 2022, the United States became the world’s largest LNG exporter. However, the country lost its status in the second half of the year after a fire outbreak at the Freeport LNG plant with a capacity of 56 mln m3/day, which occurred in June 2022. The repair works were initially expected to take 90 days but ended up lasting for eight months.
The forced downtime resulted in the cancellation of LNG shipments: according to S&P Global Platts, 12 tanker trips meant to deliver feedstock from Freeport LNG were cancelled in June 2022, with 17 and 19 trips cancelled in July and August 2022, respectively, and 16 tanker trips per month cancelled in the period from September 2022 through January 2023. In February 2022, another eight tanker trips were cancelled. As a result, the overall number of cancelled trips reached 136. This meant that the status of the world’s largest LNG exporters went back to Qatar and Australia, whose exports last year reached 294 mln m3/day and 291 mln m3/day, respectively.
Russia, Malaysia, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago, Oman and Equatorial Guinea increased their exports by a total of 36 mln m3/day, while Algeria and Nigeria reduced them by 14 mln m3/day due to a decline in the production of natural gas, which serves as feedstock for LNG. According to the Energy Institute, the reduction in gas production over the course of 2022 totaled 2.9% (to 270 mln m3/day) in Algeria and 10.6% (to 110 mln m3/day) in Nigeria.
The EU countries and the UK raised their LNG imports by 73% (by 176 mln m3/day) last year, with the bulk of the increase – 151 mln m3/day – coming from France, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. The reorientation of LNG suppliers towards the European market made gas less available in other consumer regions: LNG imports fell by 9% (by 90 mln m3/day) in Asia and by 34% (by 22 mln m3/day) in Latin America. However, this dynamics could also be attributed to other factors: for instance, China increased its pipeline gas supplies from Russia in 2022, and Brazil substituted some of its gas needs by increasing power generation at hydroelectric power plants.
