Full Title: Gas Bubble 2022: US Edition
Author(s): Robert Rozansky, Baird Langenbrunner
Publisher(s): Global Energy Monitor
Publication Date: October 20, 2022
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
It has been a tumultuous year for economies dependent on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European countries have scrambled to secure shipments of the superchilled fossil fuel as an alternative to piped Russian gas. A tight LNG market has sent prices skyrocketing, leaving Asian countries to pay exorbitant sums for shipments—or not, with some emerging economies undergoing blackouts. Companies exporting LNG from the United States and elsewhere have reaped enormous profits, at the expense of domestic consumers. All of this is occurring in a year in which heat waves, droughts, and floods continue to increase in frequency and severity, and a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that pathways to international climate goals do not have room for a gas expansion.
If anything, 2022 has underlined the risks of using LNG to fuel countries’ electricity, heating, and industrial sectors. Yet by and large the global LNG build-out continues. In its annual survey of LNG terminals, Global Energy Monitor (GEM) has identified over 300 projects in pre-construction and construction phases with an estimated cost of US$797 billion. These LNG terminals in development comprise 682 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG import capacity (equivalent to 73% of global import capacity operating today) and 779 mtpa of LNG export capacity (or 173% of existing global export capacity). These projects could further expose the world’s economies to a volatile commodity and lock in decades of new fossil fuel emissions.
This briefing presents the findings of GEM’s annual LNG update to the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker (GGIT) with a focus on the United States. The United States has emerged as the world’s leading exporter of LNG during the first half of 2022 and is home to almost half of all global LNG export capacity under development.