Qatar – Led mainly by Qatar, GECF member countries accounted for 47% of cargoes exported in 2025 thus far, the forum said in its latest monthly report.
Led mainly by Qatar, GECF member countries accounted for 47% of cargoes exported in 2025 thus far, the forum said in its latest monthly report.
In March, some 577 LNG cargoes were exported globally, Gas Exporting Countries Forum said in its Monthly Gas Market Report.
This represents an increase of 19 shipments compared to a year ago, GECF noted.
Moreover, the number of shipments rebounded in March 2025, by 14% when compared with the total in the previous month.
After the first quarter of 2025, total export cargoes reached 1,641, which was similar to the level reached during the same period in 2024.
For the January to March period, the US exported some 39 more cargoes than in 2024, followed by Indonesia with 14.
According to GECF, there was a slight uptick in the level of spot charter rates, although the shipping market remains depressed.
In March this year, the monthly average spot charter rate for steam turbine LNG carriers climbed by 40% m-o-m to reach $700 per day.
In March 2025, the average price of shipping fuels decreased by 4% m-o-m, to reach $520 per tonne. Compared with one year ago, this average price was 16% lower y-o-y, and was also 6% lower than the five-year average price for that month.
In March 2025, the LNG spot shipping costs for steam turbine carriers decreased further, by up to $0.11/MMBtu on certain routes. This was driven by the small uptick in the average LNG carrier spot charter rate, which was outweighed by the impact of the decreases in the delivered spot LNG prices and the cost of shipping fuels, when compared with the previous month.
Compared to one year ago, in March 2025, the monthly average spot charter rate and cost of shipping fuels were both lower, while the delivered spot LNG prices were higher.
As a result, LNG shipping costs were up to $0.48/MMBtu lower than in March 2024.
In March 2025, global LNG exports surged by 9.8% (3.50mn tonnes) y-o-y to reach a monthly record of 39.23mn tonnes, marking the highest annual growth rate since June 2021.
The increase was supported by higher exports from both GECF and non-GECF countries, along with a rise in LNG re-exports.
For the period Q1, 2025, global LNG exports rose by 3.9% (4.11mn tonnes) y-o-y, reaching 110.65mn tonnes driven primarily by higher exports from non-GECF countries.
The share of non-GECF countries in global LNG exports edged up from 52.2% in March 2024 to 52.8% in March 2025.
Likewise, the share of LNG re-exports increased from 0.4% to 1.2% over the same period, while the share of GECF Member Countries declined from 47.4% to 46%.
The US, Qatar and Australia were the top three LNG exporters in March, GECF noted.
© Gulf Times Newspaper 2022 Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Pratap John
