U.S. Supplied 93% of Global LNG Export Growth in 2025, Energy Institute Data Confirm
Energy Institute figures show the U.S. now commands 25% of the global LNG market as a Hormuz closure pushes Asian buyers toward Atlantic alternatives.
The Energy Institute's 2026 Statistical Review, released in late July (2026-07-24), found the United States supplied approximately 1.10 trillion cubic feet of last year's 1.2 trillion cubic foot increase in global LNG exports, roughly 93% of all new supply added to world markets in 2025.7,6
No other exporter came close. U.S. LNG exports stood at under 0.03 trillion cubic feet in 2015; by end-2025 they had reached 5.2 trillion cubic feet, a 27% rise from the 4.1 trillion cubic feet shipped in 2024, according to the same data. The U.S. share of the global LNG export market reached 25.4%, the world's largest by a substantial margin.7
The LNG surge was part of a broader shift. Total U.S. energy exports hit a record 31 quadrillion British thermal units in 2025, 2% above the 2024 record, while imports fell 5% to 21 quads, EIA data show. Net, the United States exported 11 quads more than it imported.2
Asian buyers have been absorbing a growing share of this supply. JKM, the benchmark for Asian spot LNG, last traded at $21.45 per MMBtu at Friday's (2026-07-31) close. The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for more than 90 days, Atlantic Council analysis from June (2026-06-04) noted, driving buyers toward Atlantic basin alternatives.3
That disruption has reignited a domestic U.S. debate over export policy. In March, Energy Secretary Chris Wright publicly ruled out any White House move to restrict crude oil or petroleum product exports; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called an export ban "bad on all accounts," according to Atlantic Council reporting from June (2026-06-04). Still, the political pressure has not entirely dissipated. Higher domestic pump prices, themselves a function of global oil pricing, give export-restriction advocates a cost-of-living argument that holds regardless of whether restrictions would actually lower what Americans pay at the pump.3
The export boom has a domestic energy backdrop that sits uneasily alongside it. U.S. electricity demand rose 3% in 2025, Forbes reported in July (2026-07-01) citing Energy Institute data. Coal-fired generation increased 13% in the same year, contributing to what oilprice.com reported in July (2026-07-06) as North America driving nearly half of global emissions growth in 2025. Cheap domestic gas was fuelling export terminals on the Gulf Coast while rising power demand pulled coal back onto the dispatch stack inland.4,5
Russia's parallel eastward pivot in petroleum creates a crowded backdrop in Asian markets. EIA data show that in 2024, 63% of Russia's crude exports and 85% of its coal exports went to Asia and Oceania, up sharply from pre-invasion baselines. India took 34% of Russian crude volumes in 2024, up from 30% in 2023; China's share slipped to 26% from 32% in 2023. Russia also accounted for 7% of global petroleum product exports, or 1.9 million barrels per day, that year.1
The U.S.-Russia competition is most visible in the price spread between Asian and European gas benchmarks. ICE Endex TTF front-month gas last traded at €59.05 per megawatt-hour at Friday's (2026-07-31) close. The gap between European and Asian prices determines where U.S. cargoes with destination flexibility flow; tighter European gas balances, amplified by any Hormuz-linked LNG rerouting from Gulf producers, would pull more U.S. volumes toward Europe and leave Asian buyers competing for what remains.7,3
The 93% growth-share figure reflects a specific moment: global LNG exports rose from 19.3 trillion cubic feet in 2024 to 20.4 trillion cubic feet in 2025, with virtually all the increment coming from U.S. terminals. Whether Asian power-sector demand, running hotter on rising electricity consumption and constrained by the Hormuz closure, can keep pace with growing U.S. export capacity at current JKM prices is what the Atlantic LNG trade is now priced around.7