Global liquefied natural gas exports achieved a new record during the first quarter of 2023, reaching about 104.5 million tons, compared to about 98.5 million tons during the same quarter of 2022, with an annual growth rate of about 6.1%.
According to the OAPEC LNG and Hydrogen Developments Report, this increase is due to the continued growth of demand in the European market, which resorted to LNG supplies, to reduce dependence on gas supplies through pipelines from Russia.
At the level of exporting countries, the United States of America topped the countries of the world in the volume of exports during the first quarter of 2023, as it exported about 21.5 million tons, compared to about 20.3 million tons during the same quarter of 2022, with an annual growth rate of about 3.4 percent. %.
The report indicated that this increase is directly due to the sequential resumption of operation of the liquefaction units at the Freeport LNG station, since mid-February, after a hiatus of eight months due to a methane gas leakage incident from one of the LNG shipping lines. In June 2022, after which the station stopped to review security and safety rules. In about a month and a half since its restart, Freeport LNG has exported cargoes totaling 1.35 million tons of LNG.
The report suggested that the station’s exports will increase during the coming months after all three liquefaction units at the station enter full operation, even if exports continue in this way during the coming months of the current year 2023.
He explained that the United States is expected to lead the countries of the world by the end of this year, with a large difference from the rest of the world, after it fell to third place in 2022 behind the State of Qatar and Australia due to the accident of stopping the Freeport LNG station, which is the second largest. A gas liquefaction plant in the United States with a design capacity of 15 million tons per year.
