Qatar Accounts for 18.8% Share of Global LNG Exports in 2024: IGU

Qatar’s 18.8% share of global LNG exports brings the joint LNG exports of the three largest exporters in 2024 to 60%, says the International Gas Union (IGU) in its latest report.

Qatar’s exports slipped by 0.99mn tonnes to a total of 77.23mn tonnes in 2024, largely on par with the market’s nameplate capacity of 77.1mn tonnes, IGU noted in its ‘World LNG Report 2025’.

Currently, Qatar is the third largest global LNG exporter. Ahead of Qatar are the US and Australia.

Despite delays in new projects, the US defended its position as the world’s largest LNG exporter in 2024, exporting a total of 88.42mn tonnes, equal to 21.5% of global LNG output and up 3.89mn tonnes from 2023.

Australia maintained its position as the second-largest exporter with export volumes of 81.04mn tonnes in 2024, up 1.48mn tonnes from the previous year, comprising 19.7% of global exports.

Global LNG liquefaction capacity grew by 6.5mn tonnes per year (MTPY) in 2024 to a total of 494.4 MTPY by year-end.

Despite capacity growth, the global average utilisation rate decreased slightly to 86.7% from 88.7% in 2023, due to maintenance, power disruptions, and a series of mechanical outages across various facilities.

In terms of liquefaction capacity, as of the end of 2024, there were 22 markets operating LNG export facilities. The US remained the market with the largest operational liquefaction capacity, at approximately 97.5mn tonnes per year, with an increase of 4.5MTPY compared to 2023.

Australia and Qatar ranked second and third with 87.6MTPY and 77.1MTPY, respectively, maintaining the same capacity as the previous year.

“The top three LNG export markets currently represent more than half of global liquefaction capacity,” IGU noted.

As of the end of 2024, there is 1,121.9MTPY of potential liquefaction capacity in the pre-FID stage, an increase of 75.3MTPY compared to 2023.

With the Russia-Ukraine conflict still ongoing and a huge decline in Russian piped gas volumes in the market, a wave of proposed liquefaction projects has emerged to offset the loss of Russian supply.

Some projects have also been fast-tracked to help meet demand. However, only a portion of pre-FID projects are going to proceed.

According to IGU, global LNG demand is projected to stay on a long-term growth trajectory on the back of a strong increase in demand from markets in Asia and Asia Pacific.

Although LNG contributes to global decarbonisation efforts by serving as a substitute for coal in power generation or for fuel oil in shipping, the LNG industry also needs to address emissions from its own supply chain.

Cost inflation notwithstanding, these ongoing decarbonisation efforts continue to manifest themselves in an ever more efficient LNG fleet and innovative emission reduction measures undertaken by LNG projects worldwide, the report noted.