U.S. Dominated Global LNG Exports During 2024: EIA

The U.S. exported 11.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) during 2024, according to a March 27 report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. remains the world’s top LNG exporter, with export volumes in 2023 at a similar level.

LNG exports from other major exporting countries – Australia and Qatar have remained largely stable and ranged between 10.2 and 10.7 Bcf/d yearly between 2020 and 2024. Other large LNG exporters – Russia and Malaysia, averaged 4.4 Bcf/d and 3.7 Bcf/d during 2024.

U.S. LNG exports during 2024 were largely flat compared to the year before due to a number of unplanned outages at existing LNG export facilities, limited new LNG export capacity additions and reduced natural gas usage in Europe. During 2024, Europe remained the top destination for U.S. LNG and accounted for 53 percent or 6.3 Bcf/d of total exports. Despite remaining the primary market for U.S. LNG, exports to Europe declined by 19 percent or 1.5 Bcf/d compared to 2023. The decline can be attributed to lower gas demand in Europe due to mild temperatures during the Winter 2023-24 period, leading to high storage levels. As a result during the summer period, the European market required lower volumes of gas to refill storage sites.

Asia accounted for a larger share of U.S. LNG exports during 2024 compared to 2023, increasing from 26 percent or 3.1 Bcf/d to 33 percent or 4.0 Bcf/d. South Korea, Japan, China and India imported a combined total of 3 Bcf/d or 76 percent of U.S. LNG exports to Asia. U.S. LNG imports to India rose by 0.2 Bcf/d India, the largest increase for any Asian country. Other Asian countries’ imports accounted for 24 percent or 1.0 Bcf/d of U.S. LNG.