UK and Turkish terminals were top destinations for US LNG in January

The DOE LNG monthly report shows that US terminals shipped 92.3 Bcf to the United Kingdom (17.1 percent), 81 Bcf to Turkiye (15 percent), 50.2 Bcf to Spain (9.3 percent), 45.3 Bcf to France (8.4 percent), and 39.1 Bcf to the Netherlands (7.3 percent) in January.

These five countries took 57.1 percent of total US LNG exports in January.

Before this, Turkiye was the top destination for US LNG cargoes in December and November, the Netherlands was the top destination in October, September, and August last year, and Egypt was the top destination in July for the first time in DOE’s LNG monthly reports.

In 2025, the Netherlands was the top destination with 646.1 Bcf, a 39 percent rise compared to the previous year, followed by France with 533.1 Bcf, a rise of 50 percent from 2024.

January LNG exports up

The DOE report shows that the US exported 539.2 Bcf of LNG to 29 countries in January, up 29.9 percent from the same month in 2025 and a drop of 5.3 percent compared to the prior month.

This quantity is approximately 11.2 million metric tons of LNG.

In September 2024, Europe again became the preferred destination for US LNG cargoes over Asia, and this remained the case to date.

Europe received 444.3 Bcf (82.4 percent), Asia 38.2 Bcf (7.1 percent), Africa 37.5 Bcf (7 percent), and Latin America/Caribbean 15.7 Bcf (2.9 percent) in January.

DOE said that 94.6 percent of total LNG exports went to non-free trade agreement countries, while the remaining 5.7 percent went to free trade agreement countries.

Moreover, US terminals shipped 164 LNG cargoes in January, 4 fewer than in December.

Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant sent 38 cargoes, and its Corpus Christi terminal shipped 25 cargoes, while Venture Global’s Plaquemines plant shipped 33 cargoes and the Freeport LNG terminal shipped 21 cargoes.

Sempra Infrastructure’s Cameron LNG terminal shipped 19 cargoes, while Venture Global’s Calcasieu plant sent 13 cargoes.

In addition, the Cove Point LNG terminal and the Elba Island plant each shipped seven cargoes during the month under review.

DOE noted that NFE’s Altamira LNG terminal in Mexico shipped one cargo in January. This project receives feed gas from the US and Mexico.

Average price at 8.34/MMBtu

According to DOE’s report, the average price by export terminal reached 8.34/MMBtu in January.

This compares to 8.19/MMBtu in January 2025 and 8.14/MMBtu in December 2025.

The highest average price in January was recorded at NFE’s Altamira LNG terminal, which reached $10.19/MMBtu.

Prices at other facilities ranged between $5.23/MMBtu (Elba Island) to $9.14/MMBtu (Cameron LNG), the data shows.

8,913 cargoes

The report said that from February 2016 through January 2026, the US exported 8,913 cargoes or 28,348.0 Bcf to 46 countries.

The DOE data shows that South Korea remains the top destination for US LNG, with 741 cargoes, followed by the Netherlands with 721 cargoes, France with 737 cargoes, the UK with 644 cargoes, and Japan with 625 cargoes.

France took more cargoes but fewer volumes than the Netherlands.

In addition to these five countries, Spain, Turkiye, China, India, and Italy are in the top ten.