EIA sees 34% boost to European LNG import capacity by 2024
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in its latest Natural Gas Weekly Update published December 1, said it expects to see a 34% increase in the capacity of European LNG import and regasification facilities by the end of 2024.
Driven largely by the European energy crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EIA said regas capacity in the EU and the UK will grow by about 5.3bn ft3/day by the end of next year and by another 1.5bn ft3/day, to 27bn ft3/day, by the end of 2024.
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LNG regasification capacity in the EU and UK remained relatively stable between 2012 and 2021, increasing just 16% over that period, to 20.2bn ft3/day from 17.5bn ft3/day, the EIA said, citing data from the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL).
“However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the resulting significant reduction in natural gas pipeline imports from Russia, European countries have reactivated development of previously dormant regasification projects and have started development of new projects,” the EIA said in its update report.
Through the first 11 months of 2022, it said, about 1.7bn ft3/day of new and expanded regasification capacity was added in Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany. By the end of next year, new terminals under development in Germany, Poland, France, Finland, Estonia, Italy and Greece will add 3.5bn ft3/day of new capacity.