GLNG: Albanian feasibility study, US exports and carbon-compensated LNG in Spain

Plenty of LNG-related developments continue to emerge. Last week, Excelerate Energy and ExxonMobil LNG Market Development signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Albania to conduct a feasibility study for a potential LNG import terminal in the country.
Separately, Spain’s Repsol used carbon offsets for the first time to compensate for the emissions from LNG that it delivered to Sweden’s Furetank Rederi at a terminal owned by Enagas in south-eastern Spain. The LNG will be used to power a chemical tanker, and the delivery is the latest in a series of announcements relating to carbon offsets and carbon-neutral LNG in recent weeks.
And while these LNG developments play out in Europe, other parts of the world are also seeing considerable LNG activity, in a continuation of last year’s trends. This week, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that US LNG exports continued to grow in 2020 despite the hit that demand took from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, rising 31% compared to 2019. Indeed, the EIA noted that US exports fell to record lows over the summer of 2020, but subsequently rebounded to reach all-time highs in November and December.
US LNG exports to Asia rose 67% year on year in 2020 according to the EIA, and accounted for almost half of total exports. This illustrates that Asian demand has continued growing despite the impact of the pandemic. The agency noted that Europe had been the main destination for US LNG exports in 2019, and that shipments to Europe also increased in 2020 but not as significantly as those going to Asia.
The fact that China lowered tariffs on US LNG and granted tariff waivers helped to bolster exports to Asia.