U.S. Supplied 93% of Global LNG Export Growth in 2025, With Golden Pass and Plaquemines Still Ramping
Projects totaling 2.8 trillion cubic feet of new annual export capacity cleared final investment decisions last year, cementing American dominance of global LNG supply through 2027.
Projects totaling more than 2.8 trillion cubic feet of annual export capacity cleared final investment decisions in 2025 — the same year the United States supplied 93% of all new global LNG export volumes, according to a Forbes analysis published Saturday (2026-07-19). The figures arrived together because they were built together: a decade of U.S. terminal construction is now compressing into a few years of simultaneous ramp-up.7
For American producers, the 93% share means access to a global customer base far larger than domestic demand can absorb. For U.S. consumers, as the Forbes analysis noted, it signals that NYMEX Henry Hub front-month prices will become more sensitive to international supply conditions, weather events, and geopolitical disruptions. U.S. LNG exports are projected to average around 17 billion cubic feet per day in 2026, with further growth forecast in 2027 as additional capacity enters service.7
The most visible recent addition is Golden Pass LNG, the 21.2 billion cubic metre per year terminal jointly owned by QatarEnergy at 70% and ExxonMobil at 30%. Montel reported that Golden Pass began producing from the first of its three trains on Monday, May 18, 2026. The EIA confirmed the terminal's inaugural cargo had shipped on April 22, 2026, bringing the count of operating U.S. LNG export facilities to ten.2,6
Those facilities are running near their capacity ceiling. Oil & Gas Journal reported that price spreads between U.S. and international gas markets have stayed wider than their pre-disruption levels since the Strait of Hormuz crisis earlier in 2026, sustained by near-maximum utilization at export terminals. As of Sunday (2026-07-19), NYMEX Henry Hub front-month stood at $2.88 per MMBtu while JKM Asian LNG was quoted at $20.98/MMBtu, leaving a gross spread of roughly $18 per MMBtu before shipping and regas costs.3
At those utilization rates, feedgas supply rather than terminal capacity is the near-term constraint on U.S. LNG volumes. EIA data show marketed natural gas production in the Lower 48 averaged 117.2 billion cubic feet per day in the first quarter of 2026, up 4% from the same period a year earlier. The agency forecasts a 3% full-year increase in 2026.1,3
The main driver is the Permian, expected to produce 29.2 Bcf/d in 2026 — some 6% above 2025 levels — with a further 10% gain projected for 2027 once current pipeline constraints ease. Haynesville, the dry-gas basin most directly tied to Gulf Coast LNG feedgas supply, is forecast to grow 6% this year and 8% in 2027.1
Plaquemines LNG on the Louisiana Gulf Coast and the Corpus Christi LNG complex are both ramping within that window. Cheniere Energy, which in 2016 became the first company to export LNG from the Lower 48 and has since invested more than $50 billion in the sector, operates Corpus Christi. The EIA now treats that terminal and its Stage 3 expansion as a single co-located facility. Together with Golden Pass and Plaquemines, the EIA forecast in April 2026 that five LNG export projects would complete their ramp-up by end of 2027, underpinning its projection of nearly 30% growth in U.S. LNG exports over that two-year period.4,5,6
At $2.88/MMBtu on NYMEX Henry Hub, the market is pricing in abundant domestic supply. But near-full terminal utilization, 2.8 trillion cubic feet of new capacity at final investment decision, and an $18 gross arb to Asian LNG leave that level with limited cushion. The EIA forecasts Permian pipeline constraints will ease in the second half of 2026; a delay in that relief would tighten feedgas competition between domestic consumption and export commitments before the next set of trains reaches its full ramp.1,7