North American LNG Export Tracker
Last updated: January 2026
Key Findings
Table of Contents
Use the links below for quick navigation:
1. The Changing Landscape of North American LNG
- Map of North American LNG projects
- North American LNG shipments
- Destinations for North American LNG
- The growing role of exports in the U.S. gas system
2. Canadian LNG Export Projects Face Challenging Economics
- Map of Canadian LNG projects
- Skyrocketing costs for Canadian LNG projects
3. Mexican LNG Terminals Face Financial Struggles
The changing landscape of North American LNG
Since 2016, North America’s LNG industry has built 10 industrial-scale LNG terminals that can cumulatively produce as much as 126 million metric tonnes of LNG per year. Three of the existing terminals are expanding, and eight new projects are under construction. By 2030, North America will be able to export about 252 million metric tonnes of LNG per year, roughly one-third of the global total.
North America’s LNG export industry is concentrated in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Gulf offers many geographic and cost advantages for LNG developers, including prolific gas production from nearby fracking basins, as well as pipelines and deepwater terminal infrastructure that predated the LNG boom. However, the massive LNG buildout in the Gulf region has sparked local controversy over pollution, construction impacts, and harm to commercial fishing and tourism.
The LNG industry has targeted the Pacific coast of Mexico and Canada for new LNG projects aimed at Asian markets. But export plans in both countries have struggled. Canada has opened a single export terminal, and the gas pipeline that serves it saw construction costs soar from an estimated CAD$4 billion when it was approved, to CAD$14.5 billion when it was completed. Another Canadian project, Woodfibre LNG, has seen costs explode five-fold compared with early estimates.
Meanwhile, the operator of Mexico’s sole LNG terminal is nearly insolvent, largely due to cost overruns and delays in opening its Mexican LNG facility. The sole LNG terminal under construction on Mexico’s Pacific coast, Energía Costa Azul, is behind schedule and reportedly over budget. The Mexican government has recently announced a review of the country’s largest proposed Pacific Coast export project, due to potential impacts to the marine environment in the Gulf of California.
North America LNG projects: operating and under construction
North America's LNG industry is concentrated in the Gulf Coast, with 7 projects in operation, 3 projects expanding, and 5 new projects under construction.
On the Pacific Coast, Mexico's Energía Costa Azul project is expected to start up in early 2026. The LNG Canada project on the coast of British Columbia is already in operation and will likely double its capacity in 2026, and 2 additional large-scale projects are under development on Canada's Pacific Coast.
With four facilities expanding and eight new projects under construction, North America's LNG export capacity will roughly double by 2030.
Global LNG exports
The first U.S. LNG export terminal in the U.S. Gulf Coast was launched in 2016. Now, the U.S. exports more LNG than any other country. This growth is slated to continue as new LNG facilities come online.
Together, three countries—the U.S., Australia, and Qatar—dominate the global LNG trade, producing roughly three-fifths of all LNG that is shipped internationally.
But more than a dozen additional countries export LNG — Argentina, Australia, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
North American LNG exports, 2016 - 2025
In the early years of North America’s LNG boom, most of the continent’s LNG was exported to Asia or the Americas. But following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe ramped up its purchases of North American LNG to replace Russian gas. In 2025, two-thirds of North America’s LNG has been shipped to Europe.
However, Asia is widely expected to be the source of most new global LNG demand over the coming decade. This has increased the LNG industry’s desire for new terminals on North America’s Pacific coast, particularly in Canada and Mexico.
Destinations for North American LNG, 2025
Although North American LNG is shipped around the world, the bulk of the continent’s LNG output in 2025 was shipped to Europe. Europe offers a relatively direct and inexpensive trip from LNG terminals on the Atlantic coast, and European nations have turned to U.S. LNG to offset the loss of Russian gas shipments.
Shipping LNG from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Asia faces rising challenges due to frequent congestion and low-water conditions in the Panama Canal, a long trips through the Suez Canal, or around the southern tip of Africa.
Mexico’s only operating LNG export project, the relatively small Altamira LNG plant, shipped most of its LNG to the Americas. LNG Canada, the only industrial-scale LNG export project on North America’s Pacific Coast, which began operations in mid-2025, has shipped all its output to Asia.
The buildout of North American LNG plants
North America's LNG output grew quickly from 2016 through 2025. But output will rise even faster through 2030. New terminal capacity is under construction in the U.S. Gulf region, on both the Atlantic and Pacific coast of Mexico, and on Canada’s Pacific coast.
This rapid increase in exports threatens to put strain on natural gas supplies in North America, which could lead to higher and more volatile prices for natural gas.
The growing role of exports in the U.S. gas system
Exports have been the largest single source of U.S. gas demand growth since 2016.
Combining pipeline and LNG shipments, the U.S. now exports more gas than is consumed by all U.S. industrial users combined. Exports are creating problems for consumers: Spikes in international demand can squeeze North American gas supplies, sending gas prices higher.
Put simply: As North America exports more gas, it is importing higher and more volatile gas prices. This is good news for oil and gas companies, which profit when natural prices rise. It’s also good for gas traders, who thrive in turbulent markets. But it’s bad news for North American gas and electricity consumers, who will face higher and less predictable energy bills.
Canada's LNG ambitions face cost challenges
Canada recently opened its first LNG project, LNG Canada; two more export projects are under construction. Yet Canada’s LNG industry has been riddled with false starts and financial obstacles. At least 18 proposed LNG export projects have never seen the light of day. Several additional projects have been proposed but, so far, appear stalled.
Canada’s LNG industry suffers from high and rising construction costs. Remote locations on the Pacific Northwest coast, a lack of existing infrastructure, and significant pipeline construction through mountainous terrain have combined to push Canadian construction costs to the highest levels in the world. Two LNG-related projects—Woodfibre LNG and the Coastal GasLink pipeline that supplies LNG Canada—have already seen runaway cost inflation. Potential investors have ample reason to be wary of high-cost LNG projects—particularly as massive supply additions threaten lower LNG prices.
Canadian LNG projects: operating, proposed, under construction, and stalled
High costs and weak economics have doomed most Canadian LNG projects. Canada's only major LNG export project, LNG Canada, started operations in mid-2025 and is expected to double its output in 2026. Two additional projects are under construction, and one small-scale project in metropolitan Vancouver is being expanded.
However, weak project economics have doomed most of the proposed LNG projects in western Canada. At least 18 projects have been cancelled or remain stalled.
Cost escalation for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline
The Coastal GasLink Pipeline, which carries gas from Montney Basin in northeastern British Columbia to the LNG Canada project on the Pacific coast, was initially projected to cost CAD$4 billion. TC Energy, the project's sponsor, gradually released information that costs were escalating.
By February 2023, the company revealed that all-in costs had skyrocketed to CAD$14.5 billion, more than three times the initial estimate.
TC Energy took CAD$5.1 billion in impairments on the pipeline—meaning that the pipeline may not recover its initial investment, due to runaway costs.
Cost escalation for Woodfibre LNG
In 2015, the backers of Woodfibre LNG expected the project would cost between CAD$1.4 and CAD$1.8 billion. But last year Woodfibre revealed that construction costs had risen more than six-fold, to CAD$12.2 billion. Construction hasn’t finished yet, and costs could rise still further.
This small project will be able to produce just 2.1 million metric tonnes of LNG per year, giving it an estimated construction cost of about CAD$5,800 per tonne of capacity (U.S. $4,160), roughly three to four times the cost of projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Measured per tonne of LNG production capacity, Woodfibre LNG could turn out to be one of the most expensive LNG projects in the world.
Mexican LNG terminals face financial struggles
The LNG industry has targeted Mexico’s Pacific Coast with six 6 proposed export projects. One of them—the Energía Costa Azul project south of Tijuana—is expected to open soon, after construction delays and cost overruns. The other 5 have failed to secure financing for construction.
Boosting Mexican LNG exports could create problems for Mexican gas and electricity consumers. As more gas is exported overseas, Mexican consumers will compete with wealthy European and Asian nations for limited North American gas supplies, raising the prospect of higher and more volatile energy prices in Mexico.
Mexican LNG facilities face another critical vulnerability: most would be fully reliant on gas exported from the United States. This dependence increases the risk of market manipulation, political disputes, or extreme weather events that could prevent these terminals from accessing the gas they need to operate.
By the time potential new Mexican LNG plants might come online, the global LNG markets could very well be saturated and oversupplied as the global market gets closer and closer to a glut.
Mexican LNG terminals: Operating, proposed, and stalled
Mexico has one operating LNG terminal in the waters off Altamira, Tamaulipas. A companion onshore terminal is under construction. On the Pacific coast, the Energía Costa Azul project is under construction south of Tijuana.
But the bulk of the proposed LNG capacity in Mexico is in the Gulf of California, dubbed “the aquarium of the world” for its abundant sea life, including marine mammals. These proposed LNG terminals have sparked controversy for their potential impacts on fishing, tourism, and the marine environment. The largest proposed project in the region, Saguaro Energía LNG, has been stymied by delays, permitting errors, repeated changes in ownership, and internal management turmoil.
North America and the global glut
When the larger view of North American LNG exports is examined as it has been on the North America LNG Export Tracker, it becomes clear that the rush to build is disproportionately concentrated in certain parts of the continent—places where the volume of fossil fuel infrastructure is damaging local communities without the promised economic benefit.
Given the recent U.S. rush to export and the realities of current global demand, it is unlikely new projects in Canada and Mexico will be operating in time to be profitable. Investors, decision makers, and local communities should consider the whole picture before locking in LNG infrastructure for years to come, when the market may bottom out sooner rather than later.
About
IEEFA’s North America LNG Tracker is built by compiling data from a range of sources including the Kpler, U.S. Energy Information Administration, GIGGNL, IGU and IEEFA analysis.
* For the purpose of this project, North America includes Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
