The United Kingdom was the top destination for US liquefied natural gas supplies for the second month in a row in January, as Europe continues to receive the majority of volumes produced at US liquefaction plants, according to the Department of Energy’s newest LNG monthly report.
The DOE report shows that US terminals shipped 42.9 Bcf of LNG to the UK in January, 42.7 Bcf to Turkiye, 41.9 Bcf to the Netherlands, 38.8 Bcf to Spain, and 28 Bcf to South Korea.
These five countries took 49.1 percent of total US LNG exports in January,
The UK was the top destination for US LNG supplies in December, while France was the top destination for US LNG supplies in October and November.
Prior to this, the Netherlands was the top destination for US LNG supplies for five months in a row.
The Netherlands was the number one destination for US LNG supplies during January-December last year and the country is followed by France, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Germany, Italy, China, and India, the DOE data previously showed.
The US exported in total 396.2 Bcf of LNG in January to 30 countries, up by 17.6 percent compared to the same month in 2023 and a drop of 6.3 percent from the prior month, the DOE report shows.
Europe received 283.7 Bcf or 71.6 percent of these volumes, Asia received 76.3 Bcf or 19.2 percent, and Latin America/Caribbean received 36.3 Bcf or 9.2 percent.
The DOE said that 88.6 percent of total LNG exports went to non-free trade agreement countries (nFTA), while the remaining 11.4 percent went to free trade agreement countries (FTA).
US terminals shipped 127 LNG cargoes in January, down from 135 LNG cargoes in December.
Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant sent 39 cargoes and its Corpus Christi terminal shipped 19 cargoes, while Sempra’s Cameron LNG plant sent 23 shipments and the Freeport LNG terminal sent 18 cargoes during January.
In addition, Venture Global’s Calcasieu plant sent 15 cargoes, Elba Island LNG sent 6 cargoes, and Cove Point LNG dispatched 7 shipments.
During the January-December period last year, the US exported 4,341.6 Bcf of LNG, a rise of 12 percent compared to 2022.
US plants sent 1,387 LNG cargoes to 37 countries in 2023.
According to DOE’s report, the average price by export terminal reached 7.28/MMBtu in the January-December period last year and 6.63/MMBtu in January this year.
The most expensive average price in January comes from Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass terminal and it reached $10.59/MMBtu.
Prices at other facilities range between $5.71-$6.84/MMBtu, the data shows.
The report said that in the period from February 2016 through January 2024, the US exported 5770 cargoes or 18,333.2 Bcf to 41 countries.
The DOE data shows that South Korea remains the top destination for US LNG with 584 cargoes, and the country is followed by Japan with 462 cargoes, France with 464 cargoes, the UK with 447 cargoes, and the Netherlands with 401 cargoes.
France took more cargoes than Japan but less volumes.
Besides these five countries, Spain, China, India, Turkiye, and Brazil are in the top ten as well.
