The US Department of Energy issued its March 2024 liquefied natural gas and pipelines export and import data with Turkey as the leading destination for LNG shipments while the leadership in highest prices remained with the Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana.
The DoE’s March 2024 LNG and pipeline natural gas report gave volumes, prices and trends for January 2024.
In January, the US said it exported 673.9 billion cubic feet and imported 331.3 Bcf of natural gas, which resulted in 342.6 Bcf of net exports.
US LNG exports comprised 58.8 percent of the total exports at 396.2 Bcf to 30 countries during the month.
Top 10 importers
The Top 10 recipients of US LNG deliveries in January for the very first time had Turkey as the top nation with 14 cargoes.
There was a second-place tie between the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands who received 12 cargoes each.
France and Italy each took delivery of eight cargoes while six shipments each were unloaded in Japan, South Korea and Belgium.
The 10th place was filled by Germany with five US cargoes.
The number of cargoes exported in January 2024 from each of the seven export facilities came to 127 in total. Sabine Pass in Louisiana exported 39 shipments, Cameron, Louisiana (23), Corpus Christi, Texas (19), Freeport, Texas (18), Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana (15), Cove Point, Maryland (7) and Elba Island, Georgia (6).
FOB prices
Average US LNG export prices on a free-on-board basis, including all costs of the LNG up to the point of export as well as commodity costs and liquefaction fees, dropped in January 2024 to $6.63 per million British thermal units from $6.68 per MMBtu in December 2023.
LNG cargoes from the Calcasieu Pass plant cost the most at $10.59 per MMBtu in January 2024 compared with $11.53 per MMBtu in the previous month of December 2023 and $21.95 per MMBtu back in February 2023.
The Cove Point plant had the second-highest average prices in January at $6.84 per MMBtu, down from $6.75 per MMBtu in the previous month of December 2023.
Cameron LNG had the third-highest average prices in January at $6.39 per MMBtu, up from $5.31 per MMBtu in the previous month of December 2023 when Cameron prices were the lowest.
The prices at the Corpus Christi facility were the fourth highest in January at $6.28 per MMBtu versus $7.79 per MMBtu in December 2023.
Freeport LNG had a January price of $6.17 per MMBtu and in the previous month it was at $5.98 per MMBtu.
The Elba Island plant was next in the prices line with $5.87 per MMBtu in January versus $5.22 per MMBtu in December.
The Sabine Pass plant was at the bottom of the prices list in January at $5.71 per MMBtu versus $6.15 per MMBtu in December 2023.
Puerto Rico cargoes
The US territory of Puerto Rico’s received LNG cargoes from Trinidad, Norway and Nigeria in January 2024.
Puerto Rico’s import prices averaged $7.55 per MMBtu in January compared with $7.90 per MMBtu in December 2023.
Five nations in the Caribbean received US ISO containers of LNG in January 2024 carried by conventional cargo vessels from Florida ports. They were the Bahamas (19 ISO containers), Barbados four, Haiti four, Antigua and Barbuda two and Jamaica one.
The US data also showed that the average price of pipeline gas flows to Mexico in January 2024 surged by almost 35 percent to $3.27 per MMBtu, up from $2.43 per MMBtu in December 2023.
Pipeline natural export prices for Canada in January increased by 28 percent to $3.23 per MMBtu, up from $2.52 per MMBtu in December. (March 26, 2024)
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