The United States import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import from Nigeria has continued to dwindle.
Current figure shows that US import of the product fell from 20.3 million cubic feet in June 2007 to zero as of February this year.
The U.S. LNG import started dropping since 2008 when it fell to an average of 3.1 million cubic feet. The situation became worse in 2011 when Washington imported only 2.3 million cubic feet before falling totally to zero level.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which made this disclosure in a statement, said it now gets majority of LNG from Mexico, Canada and Trinidad.
The EIA said that its natural gas net imports fell to 2.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfpd) in 2015, continuing a decline that began in 2007, when net imports of natural gas exceeded 10 Bcfpd.
According to EIA, while both U.S. natural gas consumption and production have increased in recent years, natural gas production has grown slightly faster, resulting in a decline in net imports. Increasing domestic production of natural gas has reduced U.S. reliance on imported natural gas and kept U.S. natural gas prices relatively low.
It stated: “Most U.S. imports of natural gas come by pipeline from Canada. A small and declining amount of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) comes mainly from Trinidad.
Most U.S. exports of natural gas are sent by pipeline to Mexico and Canada. The United States also exported LNG and compressed natural gas to several countries, but these volumes were relatively minimal in 2015.
“In recent years, increasing production from shale in the United States has resulted in an increase in U.S. natural gas exports. Since 2012, the natural gas pipeline industry has added 3.4 Bcfpd and 0.2 Bcfpd of export capacity to Mexico and Canada, respectively.
As a result, U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico grew from 1.3 Bcfpd in 2011 to 2.9 Bcfpd in 2015. U.S. natural gas net imports from Canada have remained relatively stable since 2011”.