The United States Government forecasts that liquefied natural gas exports would hit an all-time high through the normally quieter Northern Hemisphere summer from May to August and even amid higher benchmark Henry Hub prices.
“In April, US LNG exports averaged 11.6 billion cubic feet per day , slightly below an all-time peak of almost 12.0 Bcf per day set in March,” said the Energy Information Administration in its short-term energy outlook.
“We forecast that US LNG exports will average 12.1 Bcf/d from May through August, which is slightly lower than our previous forecast,” added the EIA.
“This forecast reflects our assumption of slightly lower LNG demand in Asia and Europe this summer compared with our previous assumption, in part because of sustained high natural gas prices,” explained the report.
The outlook forecasts that US LNG exports will average 12.0 Bcf per day for all of 2022, a 23 percent increase from 2021.
“Growth in LNG exports in recent years has been driven by capacity expansions,” noted the report.
“However, we do not expect any new export facilities to come online in the forecast period, and as a result, forecast growth in LNG exports slows to 5 percent in 2023, with LNG exports averaging 12.6 Bcf per for the year,” it said.
The EIA report said that the April Henry Hub natural gas spot price averaged $6.59 per million British thermal units , which was up from the March average of $4.90 per MMBtu and higher than the April 2021 average of $2.66 per MMBtu.
