U.S. liquefied natural gas exports increased 12 percent in the first half of this year compared to the second half of 2021. This is according to a recent report by the US Energy Information Administration.
Natural gas from the US is exported mainly to the EU and the UK
The United States exported an average of 11.2 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per day from January to June this year, equivalent to about 317 million cubic meters. More than 70 percent of those exports went to European Union states and the United Kingdom, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.
Exports are not a response to the war in Ukraine
However, US LNG exports have been growing for the past few years. This is not an immediate reaction to the decision of the EU member states to gradually cut themselves off from Russian natural gas. The United States has previously increased its LNG exports in response to growing demand from a number of countries seeking to diversify long-term supplies of the commodity.
The US is also increasing the capacity of its natural gas liquefaction terminals, which is good news for the EU-27, which is on average 40 percent dependent on gas supplies from Russia. Some EU countries even up to 100 percent.
