The US has become the world's top LNG exporter as it funnels supply to European consumers at the mercy of Russia
(Photo by Mark Garfinkekl/Boston Herald/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
- The US has earned itself the title of "world's largest LNG exporter", according to the EIA.
- LNG exports rose by 12% in the first half of 2022 compared to the second half of 2021.
- At least 71% of LNG exports went to the EU and the UK as energy tensions with Russia heat up.
The US has risen to become the world's largest liquefied-natural gas exporter during the first half of 2022, according to the Energy Information Administration.
According to an EIA report, US LNG exports increased by 12% in the first half of this year compared with the second half of 2021. In total, exports averaged out to 11.2 billion cubic feet a day.
At least 71% of US' LNG exports went to the EU and the UK during the first five months of the year, the EIA said, as energy tensions with Russia mount.
"US LNG exports continued to grow for three reasons—increased LNG export capacity, increased international natural gas and LNG prices, and increased global demand, particularly in Europe," the EIA said.
Europe has been suffering lately, as it struggles to store up energy before the winter months approach due to reduced Russian supply.
European natural gas prices have soared by almost 200% so far this year. Dutch TTF futures, the European benchmark, jumped more than on 10% Tuesday to trade above 180 euros per megawatt hour ($191), marking their biggest one day-rise since early July"
Recently, Russia terminated the flow of natural gas via a key pipeline, Nord Stream 1, to carry out maintenance for 10 days. The temporary closure sent waves of fear among European leaders as they believed it would become permanent, which would have a dire effect on the euro area economy.
After much anxiety, Russia resumed gas flows albeit at reduced levels. The reopening however hardly provided relief after Russia's state-run energy giant Gazprom said just days later it would cut natural gas flows through the pipeline to Europe to just 20% of capacity by Wednesday, down from 40% previously.
Many European officials have accused Moscow of weaponizing energy after Western nations imposed aggressive sanctions on the country over its war with Ukraine.
In response, the EU has had to pursue alternative sources of energy to stock up ahead of the upcoming winter months. "Since the end of last year, countries in Europe have increasingly imported more LNG to compensate for lower pipeline imports from Russia and to fill historically low natural gas storage inventories," the EIA said.
The US has consequently stepped into the breach to help its EU allies, with its LNG export capacity expanding by 1.9 billion cubic feet per day since November 2021. This has partly helped offset a drop of 2.0 billion cubic feet per day in export capacity that is offline at the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas, which has been shuttered since early June after a fire broke out at the plant.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/pxOmX34
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment