NEW YORK — U.S. liquefied natural gas exports fell to 10.48 million tonnes in July, down from 10.6 million tonnes in June, even as global benchmarks held at elevated levels: JKM at $19.10 per million British thermal units and TTF at $18.07 per million British thermal units. The gap between constrained U.S. volumes and firm international prices points squarely to a domestic supply bottleneck.
The slowdown showed up in weekly cargo data first. U.S. LNG plants dispatched 31 cargoes during the week ending July 8, five fewer than the prior week.
Average gas flows to the nine major U.S. LNG export facilities eased to 17.2 billion cubic feet per day in July, down from 17.4 billion cubic feet per day in June and well below the monthly record of 18.8 billion cubic feet per day set in April.
Ongoing maintenance at Freeport LNG's Texas facility—which carries nameplate capacity of 2.4 billion cubic feet per day—is the primary drag on national throughput.
Europe absorbed the largest share of available supply. Shipments to European destinations rose to 4.76 million tonnes in July from 4.41 million tonnes in June. Asia received 3.32 million tonnes over the same period.
On the domestic side, prices held near a three-month low, with the September natural gas contract trading near a four-year low. Record production is suppressing Henry Hub, but the storage picture complicates that narrative: the build for the week ending July 24 came in at 28 billion cubic feet, short of the 35 billion cubic feet analysts expected—a tighter supply signal than the headline production numbers suggest.
The combination of record output and pinched export capacity keeps downward pressure on Henry Hub while JKM and TTF remain elevated. That spread widens the delivered-cost advantage for U.S. LNG on a fully operational basis—and narrows sharply once Freeport returns to full capacity.
For energy infrastructure bondholders, the maintenance outage introduces duration risk. Delayed restoration of full throughput compresses near-term revenue, creating uncertainty over cash flow timing that credit analysts are already pricing into spread levels for terminal operators.
