Liquefied natural gas facility work is booming across the country, so much so that some analysts are beginning to ponder when a good thing may be too good.
A new Reuters report, noting that liquefied natural gas capacity is on course to expand by up to 60% by the end of this decade, says a “looming global oversupply along with rising power prices domestically could leave the industry exposed on both sides of its value chain.”
Currently, the U.S., which is building up to half of the new facility expansion, is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the world.
The rapid build-out of such facilities, continues the report, “is poised to create a huge global supply glut, possibly comparable to last decade’s surge in U.S. shale oil output, which led to one of the biggest downturns in the sector’s history.”
The trend lines have been in place for most of the last decade, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which notes that liquefied natural gas exports from the U.S. “have increased every year since 2016.”
“Increasing international demand for natural gas and the building out of U.S. liquefied natural gas facilities have enabled this growth,” continues the report.
Plants currently under construction in Plaquemines, Louisiana; and both Port Arthur and Golden Pass, Texas confirm the industry’s growth, adding to existing plant infrastructure in Cove Point, Maryland; Elba Island, Georgia; and Cameron, Louisiana.
Altogether, notes the site Yale Environment 360, “eight projects, some expansions of existing facilities, some new projects, all but one on the Gulf Coast, have been approved by federal regulators and are under construction.”
The projects have all received federal approval.
Spurring the new development was a White House announcement in January directing the Department of Energy to resume the permitting of such projects, after they were earlier paused by the Biden Administration, as part of what President Trump has called his “energy dominance” initiative.
Last week the San Diego, California-based Sempra Infrastructure announced that it had received approval to start work on the second phase of a liquefied natural gas facility in Port Arthur.
The two Sempra phases combined have a dollar worth of $27 billion.
September 30, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy Department of Energy
