EIA: U.S. natural gas trade will continue growth

U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will continue to lead growth in U.S. natural gas trade as three LNG export projects currently under construction start operations and ramp up to full production by the end of 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The EIA also forecasts increased natural gas exports by pipeline, mainly to Mexico. The EIA expects that net exports of U.S. natural gas will grow 6% to 13.6 Bcf/d in 2024 compared with 2023. In 2025, net exports should increase another 20% to 16.4 Bcf/d.

“In 2024–25, we forecast that existing U.S. LNG export facilities will run at similar utilization rates as in 2023,” the EIA said. “Later in 2024, we expect that Plaquemines LNG Phase I and Corpus Christi Stage 3 will begin LNG production and load first cargoes by the end of the year. In 2025, the developers of Golden Pass LNG plan to place in service the first two trains of this new three-train LNG export facility.”

The EIA also forecasts an increase in U.S. natural gas pipeline exports to Mexico as several pipelines in Mexico—Tula-Villa de Reyes, Tuxpan-Tula, and Cuxtal Phase II connecting to the Energía Mayakan pipeline on the Yucatán Peninsula—become fully operational in 2024–25. These pipelines started partial service in 2022–23 but have not been operating at full capacity. Also, flows via the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan underwater pipeline are likely to increase slightly in 2024 when it begins delivering natural gas from the United States to Mexico’s first LNG export project, Fast LNG Altamira.