Status: 07.01.2022 10:25 a.m.
Oil and gas are currently more popular than ever. The high demand in Europe has now given the USA a record export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Most recently, ten US tankers set course for Europe.
The high demand for natural gas in Europe set a new record for US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in December. According to figures from the data provider Refinitiv, around 7.15 million tons of LNG were exported with 106 ships last month. The previous high in May was therefore 6.51 million tons. Around half of US exports went to Europe.
Energy crisis in Europe
In Asia and Europe, rising demand over the past few months has led to record high prices. The energy crisis had recently come to a head. Shortly before Christmas, a megawatt hour of natural gas on the TTF market in the Netherlands cost more than 170 euros at times, more than ever before. Since the beginning of December alone, the wholesale price has increased by almost 80 percent. Today the price is around 99 euros. For comparison: In the Corona crisis it was now five euros.
One reason for the extreme price increases is the scarcity of Europe’s supply of Russian natural gas, which comes from the state-owned company Gazprom. In the middle of the cold season, Russia also stopped its gas deliveries to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline. The fill levels in European gas storage facilities are currently at an all-time low.
In the USA, on the other hand, the supply exceeds domestic consumption by around ten percent because of the production of shale oil and gas. Many US gas exporters see the skyrocketing prices as a good business opportunity and want to benefit from the boom on world markets. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), US gas exports had already risen by 42 percent in the first half of last year.
LNG particularly well suited
It was not until the end of December that ten US tankers with LNG set course for Europe, as reported by the Bloomberg news agency. Another 20 ships are also to cross the Atlantic and compensate for the lower deliveries from Russia.
According to experts, the amount of almost five million cubic meters of LNG can be enough to cover a third of the needs of Germany, the largest gas consumer in Europe, in one winter month. In summer this corresponds to a monthly consumption. With the news, prices also calmed down a little. On the wholesale market, they suddenly plummeted by ten percent.
The so-called LNG is particularly suitable for export because, due to its high energy density, it can be transported across the oceans by tanker in a relatively small space. However, the capacity for cooling natural gas to liquefied natural gas is limited in the USA. In December it was just under the maximum capacity.