US LNG set to overtake Australia

HOUSTON, March 9, 2017 – The USA could be set to take the lion’s share of global LNG supply by 2035, outpacing both Qatar and Australia.

Tellurian CEO Meg Gentle told the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston that as global demand goes up, an additional 20 million tonnes of LNG capacity per year will need to be installed globally by 2022. The USA, with its increasing prolific shale plays, could be set to take on the bulk of that, Bloomberg reported.

Australia currently has an LNG capacity of 87 million tpy, slightly more than Qatar’s 82 million tpy. By comparison the US is now seeing roughly 70 million tpy come online.

Sabine Pass, the country’s first LNG export terminal, was opened by Cheniere Resources on the Louisiana coast in 2016. Since then exports have increased steadily to more than 1.13 bcm (40 bcf) in December 2016, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Exports from the terminal hit a record high in January 2017, at around 1.5 bcm (53 bcf) of LNG.

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