WASHINGTON: Jordan and China have joined the club of importing nations that received waterborne shipments of U.S. shale-derived liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to new government figures. Statistics updated as of end-July issued today by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy also show U.S. LNG exports now have opened up a comfortable lead over U.S. LNG imports year-to-date, solidifying history created a month previously.
Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass terminal along the Texas-Louisiana border shipped the first-ever LNG export out of the lower 48 U.S. states on Feb. 24 this year, on the tanker Asia Vision that carried a cargo to Brazil. Between that path-breaking day and July 31, DOE data show Sabine Pass logged 21 outbound LNG tanker voyages hauling a total of 63.47 bcf of domestically produced LNG to world markets.
Shipborne LNG imports for the seven full months ending July 31, meanwhile, were recorded as 53.07 bcf, all coming from Trinidad, with July imports totaling just 5.7 bcf versus 15.7 bcf in exports. This denouement fulfils an earlier U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projection that America would become a net LNG exporter during 2016, overturning the reality of a decade ago when LNG imports were seen as a rising market.
Exports of U.S. LNG to the Middle East have become one of the most striking aspects of the new trade, given Qatar’s standing as the world’s largest LNG exporter. The latest DOE data release shows the LNG tanker Gaslog Greece departed Sabine Pass for Jordan on July 18 with a 3.57 bcf cargo. Jordan joins Dubai and Kuwait as importers of U.S. LNG in the Middle East.
The LNG tanker Sestao Knutsen embarked for Spain on July 1 with a 2.93 bcf cargo, making that nation the second European importer of U.S. LNG after Portugal. The LNG tanker Maran Gas Apollonia departed Sabine Pass for China with a 3.13 bcf LNG cargo on July 20, making for another landmark voyage. Argentina, Brazil and Chile in South America, and India in South Asia, are the other nations to have sourced U.S. LNG through the end of July.
