Liquefaction growth continues, but LNG market length looms

Global LNG trade grew 2.4% in 2024, to 411 million tonnes, according to the International
Gas Union’s (IGU) 2025 "World LNG Report." Of this, 139 million tonnes was exported from the Asia Pacific, the largest regional source, with US exports of 88.4 million tonnes the most by a single country.

End-2024 had more than 210 million tonnes/year (tpy) of liquefaction either under construction or approved for development, according to IGU, which would enter service on top of the 494 million tpy already operating.

In the US, the Trump administration is keen to accelerate the pace of LNG plant development. But it’s not alone in these ambitions, and as 2025 has progressed, concerns have grown regarding potential oversupply.

Macquarie Group Ltd.’s June 2025 LNG supply-demand outlook forecast a “reasonably balanced market” through third-quarter 2026, with a shift to “heavy oversupply” in 2027-28.

What follows is a look at the projects under way in both the US and Asia Pacific, as well as Canada and Africa. But we’ll start off with activity in a fifth growth region, the Middle East.

Middle East projects

The biggest LNG liquefaction project under way globally is Qatar’s North Field expansion.

In February 2024, the country announced it was moving ahead with its 16-million tpy North Field West project. The decision followed final investment decisions (FID) on the 32-million tpy North Field East (NFE) in 2021 and 16-million tpy North Field South in 2023. Together,
these projects will increase Qatar’s LNG liquefaction capacity to more than 142 million tpy by 2030, from 77 million tpy in mid-2024.

QatarEnergy expects NFE to begin production mid-2026, with a target of boosting North Field-related LNG output to 126 million tpy during 2027. The company has reached multiple offtake agreements with European and Asian customers.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) contractor TJN Ruwais JV in January 2025 let a lump-sum engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract to CB&I for two 180,000-cu m cryogenic tanks and associated works at its 9.6-million tpy Ruwais LNG plant.

ADNOC expects to start construction of the plant in November 2025 to meet a 2028 completion date. The company says Ruwais will be the first LNG plant in the region to run on clean power. It has secured five sales agreement for the plant’s output, the most recent being a 15-year deal with ENN LNG (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. for 1 million tpy (OGJ Online, Apr. 21, 2025).

TotalEnergies SE and the Oman National Oil Co. broke ground on the 1-million tpy Marsa LNG project earlier in 2025. The plant is intended primarily to supply bunker fuel to the marine shipping industry starting first-quarter 2028 (OGJ Online, May 1, 2025).

US

NextDecade Corp. earlier this year increased the ultimate planned capacity of its Rio Grande LNG plant in Brownsville, Tex., to 48 million tpy, beginning the permitting process
for Trains 6-8. The plant’s first five trains would produce 27 million tpy, with the newest trains adding 7 million tpy each.

At the end of first-quarter 2025, EPC contractor Bechtel Energy Inc. had completed 38.1% of work on Trains 1 and 2 and 15.3% of work on Train 3. NextDecade was still seeking commercial opportunities for Trains 4 and 5 (OGJ Online, Apr. 1, 2025).

In May 2025, the company signed a 20-year deal with JERA Co. Inc. for offtake of 2 million tpy from Train 5, pending final investment decision (FID) on the production unit. The JERA agreement followed deals with both TotalEnergies and Saudi Aramco for Train 4 output.

Woodside Energy last year acquired Tellurian Inc. and renamed its 27.6-million tpy Driftwood LNG plant in Calcasieu Parish, La., Woodside Louisiana LNG. The company has since been negotiating with potential customers and in April 2025 took FID on Phase 1, consisting of three trains totaling 16.5 million tpy, despite having only reached agreements to sell 1 million tpy.

Phase 1 is expected to come online in 2029, with the rest of the capacity operational in 2031.

QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil Corp.’s 18-million tpy Golden Pass LNG plant in Sabine Pass, Tex., is set to begin operations as early as this year, when it would become the ninth operating largescale LNG plant in the US. The project earlier this year secured an extension to Nov. 30, 2029, from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to place the plant into full service, having requested the extension due to delays incurred in 2024 when the project’s lead contractor Zachry Industrial Inc. declared bankruptcy (OGJ Online, Mar. 5, 2025).

Venture Global Inc. in June 2025 started site work on its 20-million tpy CP2 LNG plant in Cameron Parish, La. The move followed May 23 permission from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build and operate both the plant and the 4.4-bcfd CP Express pipeline. The company expects CP2 to enter service in 2027.

Worley is the EPC contractor for CP2’s 10-million tpy Phase 1, which will use 18 small liquefaction trains installed in nine two-train blocks.

This is the same approach used for Venture Global’s 10-million tpy Calcasieu Pass LNG and 10-million tpy Plaquemines LNG.

Venture Global on June 10 withdrew the FERC application for its 24.4-million tpy Delta LNG plant, choosing instead to focus its resources on the 10-million tpy Phase 2 expansion of Plaquemine’s LNG.

Plaquemines achieved first production from Phase 1 in December 2024. The company has since requested FERC permission to begin work on a third phase that would add 18 million tpy of capacity, and expects to take FID on the expansion in mid-2027.

Sempra Infrastructure earlier this year won DOE authorization to export LNG to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries from its proposed 13.4-million tpy Port Arthur Phase 2 expansion in Jefferson County, Tex. The company is targeting FID by end-2025, but has acknowledged that macroeconomic issues could affect this timing (OGJ Online, May 30, 2025).

Sempra subsequently reached a nonbinding agreement with JERA to offtake 1.5 million tpy from Phase 2 for 20 years and said this would help progress FID.

Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 (13-million tpy) is under construction and consists of Trains 1 and 2—with expected commercial operation dates of 2027 and 2028, respectively—as well as two LNG storage tanks and associated infrastructure.

Cheniere Energy Inc. in early 2025 produced first LNG from Train 1 of its 10-million tpy Corpus Christi LNG Stage 3 (CCL Stage 3) and reached substantial completion of the train in mid-March following its commissioning. CCL Stage 3 consists of seven midscale trains, with completion of the project as a whole expected second-half 2026.

CCL Stage 3 will bring the plant’s total capacity to more than 25 million tpy.

Commonwealth LNG in second-quarter 2025 signed two 20-year LNG offtake agreements totaling 3 million tpy. The first of these was with Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) for 1 million tpy from Commonwealth’s 9.5-million tpy plant under development in Cameron, La.

The second was with Glencore PLC for 2 million tpy. FID for Commonwealth is expected
in September 2025 to meet a first-quarter 2029 startup date. The project has received its DOE export permits.

Earlier in Q2 2025, Mubadala Energy, a subsidiary of government-owned Mubadala Investment Co., Abu Dhabi, agreed with Kimmeridge to acquire a 24.1% interest in its So-
Tex HoldCo LLC, parent company of both Commonwealth LNG and Kimmeridge Texas Gas.

Canada

In late 2024, LNG Canada Development Inc. agreed with Coastal GasLink LP to start commercial operations on the latter’s 2.1-bcfd pipeline which will supply gas sourced from Montney, Horn River, and Cordova basins to the 14-million tpy LNG Canada plant in Kitimat, BC. The company is a joint venture led by Shell PLC and including Petronas, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Corp., and Korea Gas Corp.

At the time of writing, LNG Canada had begun production and loaded its first cargo (OGJ Online, July 1, 2025). The plant is the first stationed on North America’s Pacific Coast and LNG Canada is evaluating the possibility of taking FID on a second 14-million tpy phase in 2026.

TotalEnergies earlier this year agreed to buy 2 million tpy of LNG for 20 years from the proposed 12-million tpy Ksi Lisims LNG plant as well as securing a 5% stake in Western LNG LLC, developer and future operator of the project (OGJ Online, May 19, 2025).

The companies expect to take FID later this year, at which point TotalEnergies can up its stake to 10%.

The plant, expected to begin commercial operations late-2028 or during 2029, will be sited on two barges in Nisga’a Nation territory at the northern tip of Pearse Island, BC. Its offtake agreement with TotalEnergies is its second, following an end-2023, 2-million tpy deal with Shell Eastern Trading Pte. Ltd.

Cedar LNG, a partnership between Haisla Nation (51%) and Pembina Pipeline Corp. (49%), in April 2025 selected Ledcor Haisla LP to build the 400-MMcfd pipeline supplying natural gas to its 3.3-million tpy FLNG plant in Kitimat, BC.

Cedar took FID in 2024 and has a targeted in-service date of late 2028.

In Pembina’s first-quarter 2025 earnings call, the company indicated that demand for Cedar’s output had been sufficient to support a second phase of development. The company holds a 1.5-million tpy share of Cedar’s output and said it had already received inquires in excess of that.

Woodfibre LNG Ltd., a subsidiary of Pacific Energy Corp. (Canada) Ltd., is building a 2.1-million tpy LNG plant in Squamish, BC.

Woodfibre, which is working with the Squamish Nation in construction, says it will be the first net-zero LNG plant built. Power for its single train will be hydroelectric.

McDermott International is Woodfibre’s EPC contractor, with substantial completion expected by 2027. As of June 2025, foundation work was under way for the LNG processing equipment, the first pipe rack modules having arrived the month before. Spill prevention and response drills were also being conducted.

Africa

Mozambique has approved development plans for the 3.5-million tpy Phase II of Eni SPA’s Coral FLNG project off its Indian Ocean coast. Dubbed Coral Norte FLNG, the plant will copy the implementation of Coral Sul FLNG to liquefy gas from six production wells in Coral Eocence 441, Area 4, Rovuma basin. Work on the project is expected to start in 2025 to hit a 2028 startup target. Coral Sul entered operation in November 2022.

TotalEnergies’s 13-million tpy Mozambique LNG project on the Afungi peninsula—under force majeure since April 2021 due to security concerns and awaiting reengagement of project financers to restart—got approved in March 2025 for financing of up to $4.7 billion from the Export-Import Bank of the US (Ex-Im Bank) as is expected to relaunch on that basis.

The company indicated in May 2025 that it would be asking Mozambique to lift the force majeure declaration.

Efforts are also being made to begin work within the next year on the onshore 18-million tpy ExxonMobil Corp.-led Rovuma LNG project, likewise pulling gas from Area 4. Rovuma
basin is estimated to contain more than 85 tcf of natural gas.

In its 2024 annual report, published in February 2025, ExxonMobil said it expects to reach FID on Rovuma in 2026.

In third-quarter 2024, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) began discussions with investors regarding the potential revitalization of the Olokola (OK, 12.5-million tpy) and Brass (10-million tpy) LNG projects.

Brass would use two 5-million tpy trains to liquefy gas in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. OK LNG would be built in Cross River State.

Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Ltd. in June 2025 announced that its 8-million tpy Train 7 was 80% complete. It had been 67% complete in mid-2024.

NLNG’s plant is sited on Bonny Island, Rivers State. Train 7 will increase its total capacity to
30-million tpy.

Early 2025 tax-incentive discussions regarding development of Equinor ASA-Shell PLC-ExxonMobil’s 10-million tpy Tanzania LNG plant failed to reach tangible agreements by a midyear targeted deadline.

Local media reported in May 2025 that Tanzania’s government intended to “ratify the terms” of the project by October 2025.

Pavilion Energy Pte. Ltd., Medco Energi Internasional Tbk PT, and Tanzanian-state TPDC also hold shares of the project. Gasfeed would come from deepwater fields offshore Lindi and Mtwara, Tanzania.

Eni SPA in late 2024 launched the hull for its 80% complete 2.4-million tpy Nguya FLNG plant, to be deployed as Phase 2 of Congo LNG. Eni is targeting December 2025 startup for Nguya FLNG. Tango FLNG (600,000 tpy) entered service offshore Congo in December 2023.

Natural gas for Congo LNG is being extracted from Eni’s (65%) Marine XII concession, 20 km offshore Congo. Marine XII has proven and probable reserves of 1.3 billion boe.

Perenco expects its 700,000 tpy Cap Lopez FLNG plant in Gabon to enter service during 2026. In addition to its LNG output, the bargebased plant will produce 25,000 tpy of LPG, primarily butane.

In May 2025, Technomak Energy International FZC was awarded an EPC plus commissioning and integration contract for the development, which is an expansion of the existing Cap Lopez crude oil terminal.

Asia Pacific

Inpex Corp. in April 2025 began front-end engineering and design for its 9.5-million tpy Abadi LNG project in Indonesia. The following month, the company reached nonbinding agreements with three Indonesian companies for offtake of both LNG and pipeline gas (Inpex is also operator of the offshore Abadi field).

The shore-based LNG plant will be supplied by a 175-km subsea pipeline.

Papua LNG (5.6-million tpy) is targeting an end-2027 to early 2028 production start.

ExxonMobil indicated in January 2025 that FID on the plant could be as much as a year away, with project-lead TotalEnergies saying in its 2024 earnings report that it would  review the plant’s finances in September 2025. External funding has been difficult to secure and cost estimates have risen to $18 billion from an initial $10-12 billion.

The project is held by TotalEnergies (37.55%), ExxonMobil (37.04%), Santos (22.83%), and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (2.58%). Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd. has a back-in right for as much as 20.5% once the project is awarded its petroleum development license.

State-owned Mineral Resources Development Co. Ltd. has a similar arrangement for as much as 2%.

Woodside Energy Group Ltd. in late 2024 took delivery of the final modules for 5-million tpy Train 2 of its Pluto LNG plant in Karratha, Western Australia. Construction began January 2025, with Bechtel serving as EPC contractor. Gas will be supplied by Scarborough gas field in Carnarvon basin, 375 km offshore Karratha, with first LNG targeted for 2026 (OGJ Online, Dec. 26, 2024).

Petronas is building its 2-million tpy FLNG 3 plant in Sabah, offshore Sipitang, Indonesia. Initial gas supplies will come from Kebabangan field.

Also in Indonesia, Genting Oil & Gas subsidiary PT Layar Nusantara Gas (PT LNG) is developing a 1.2-million tpy FLNG plant. Feed will be supplied by GOKPL’s Kasuri PSC.

FEED work is complete and in September 2023 PT LNG signed a notice to proceed with Wison (Nantong) Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. covering orders of long lead-time items in  advance of EPC contracts.

In separate 2024 agreements, PT LNG first signed Wison to provide EPC, installation, and commissioning of the plant and then Shandong Kerui Energy Development Co. Ltd. and China National Machinery Import & Export Corp. for design, engineering, and procurement
of the project’s midstream infrastructure, including an onshore gas processing plant
and associated pipelines.

The converted vessel is expected to leave its Chinese shipyard second-quarter 2026 and will be stationed off West Papua.