The United States is gradually making inroads into export markets that Nigeria sends its Liquefied Natural Gas cargoes to as the North American country’s LNG exports quadrupled in 2017, The Punch reports.

The Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that more than half (53%) of the US LNG exports in 2017 were shipped to three countries: Mexico, South Korea, and China, all of which had received LNG volumes from Nigeria. The EIA said almost 60% of the US LNG in 2017 was sold on a spot basis to more than 20 countries in Asia, North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Caribbean.

The EIA attributed the increase in the LNG exports over the past two years to the continuing expansion of the US LNG export capacity. Two LNG projects – Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Cove Point in Maryland have come online since 2016, increasing the US LNG export capacity to 3.6Bcfpd.

Four more projects are scheduled to come online in the next two years: Elba Island LNG in Georgia and Cameron LNG in Louisiana in 2018, then Freeport LNG and Corpus Christi LNG in Texas in 2019. In Nigeria, three LNG projects, namely, Olokola LNG, Brass LNG and the NLNG’s Train 7, have suffered setbacks in recent years as a result of the delay in taking final investment decisions by the stakeholders.

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