North America’s LNG export capacity could double by 2029

The US is already the largest exporter in the world with 15.4 billion ft³/d of capacity.

More broadly, LNG export capacity in North America is on track to increase from 11.4 billion ft³/d at the beginning of 2024 to 28.7 billion ft³/d in 2029, if projects currently under construction begin operations as planned. Exporters in Canada and Mexico have announced plans to add 2.5 billion ft³/d and 0.6 billion ft³/d of capacity over the same period, respectively. North American export capacity additions will total over 50% of expected global additions through 2029, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

USA

The planned liquefaction capacity additions will be concentrated around the US Gulf Coast, already the largest hub for LNG exports in the Atlantic Basin. To supply these terminals, new pipeline projects will be built to transport natural gas from production areas. However, pipeline construction delays remain a supply risk for new terminals. Plaquemines LNG Phase 1 shipped its first cargo in December 2024. Plaquemines LNG Phase 2 and Corpus Christi Stage III began shipping cargoes earlier in 2025, but they have not yet begun commercial operation. Five additional LNG export projects in the US have reached final investment decision (FID) and are currently under construction:

• Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 (1.6 billion ft³/d).
• Rio Grande LNG (2.1 billion ft³/d).
• Woodside Louisiana LNG (2.2 billion ft³/d).
• Golden Pass LNG (2.1 billion ft³/d).
• CP2 Phase 1 (2.0 billion ft³/d).

Canada

On 1 July 2025, LNG Canada – the nation’s first LNG export terminal – shipped its first cargo from Train 1 after achieving first LNG production in late June. LNG Canada, located in British Columbia, can produce a combined 1.84 billion ft³/d from two liquefaction trains (0.9 billion ft³/d per train), and the facility is anticipated to reach full capacity in 2026. A proposed second phase of the project would double the export capacity to 3.68 billion ft³/d and expand the facility to four trains, according to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER). The expansion is expected to come online after 2029.

Canada’s new LNG capacity will be on the west coast of North America, reducing shipping times to Asian markets by 50% compared with exports from US Gulf Coast terminals, and will source feedgas from the Montney Formation in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Two other projects with a combined capacity of 0.7 billion ft³/d are currently under construction in Western Canada. Woodfibre LNG, with an export capacity of 0.3 billion ft³/d, is expected to start LNG exports in 2027. Cedar LNG – a floating LNG project with capacity to liquefy up to 0.4 billion ft³/d – reached FID in June 2024 and is expected to begin LNG exports in 2028.

Mexico

Developers are currently constructing two LNG export projects in Mexico with a combined capacity of 0.6 billion ft³/d – the Fast LNG Altamira Floating LNG (FLNG) production vessel (FLNG2), which has a capacity to liquefy up to 0.2 billion ft³/d off the east coast of Mexico, and Energía Costa Azul (0.4 billion ft³/d export capacity) on Mexico’s west coast. Both projects will source feedgas from sources in the US. Mexico’s first LNG export cargo was produced aboard Fast LNG Altamira FLNG1 in August 2024, and natural gas transported on the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan natural gas pipeline supplies this project.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/17102025/north-americas-lng-export-capacity-could-double-by-2029/