Qatar held the LNG crown for years, then lost it. This answer sets out who leads global liquefied natural gas exports now, how the order changed, and why Qatar's North Field expansion is a bid to take the top spot back by 2030.<\/p>\n
No. As of 2025 the United States is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, shipping a record 111 million tonnes, about a quarter of the global market, and becoming the first country to pass 100 million tonnes in a single year. Qatar is second at roughly 78 million tonnes, narrowly ahead of Australia in third, and together the three supply close to two thirds of world LNG. Qatar led global LNG exports for much of the past two decades but was overtaken as United States capacity surged. Qatar intends to reclaim the lead by around 2030 through its North Field expansion, which lifts its capacity from 77 to 142 million tonnes a year.<\/p>\n
En 2025, les \u00c9tats-Unis ont export\u00e9 un volume record de 111 millions de tonnes de GNL, soit environ 25 % du march\u00e9 mondial, et sont devenus le premier pays \u00e0 exporter plus de 100 millions de tonnes en une seule ann\u00e9e (EIA am\u00e9ricaine<\/a>Les exportations des \u00c9tats-Unis ont augment\u00e9 de 27 % sur un an et, selon certaines estimations, le pays a fourni la quasi-totalit\u00e9 de la nouvelle offre mondiale de GNL ajout\u00e9e en 2025 (Forbes<\/a>).<\/p>\n Le Qatar se classe deuxi\u00e8me avec environ 78 millions de tonnes, juste devant l'Australie, troisi\u00e8me. Ces trois exportateurs repr\u00e9sentent \u00e0 eux seuls pr\u00e8s de 63 % de la production mondiale de GNL (EIA<\/a>La r\u00e9ponse honn\u00eate \u00e0 cette question est donc que le Qatar est un tr\u00e8s grand exportateur, mais pas le plus grand\u00a0; ce titre revient aux \u00c9tats-Unis.<\/p>\n Qatar did not decline. It was outpaced. For most of the past two decades Qatar was the world’s dominant LNG exporter, but from the late 2010s the United States built liquefaction capacity at extraordinary speed, adding train after train on the Gulf Coast (reportages sectoriels<\/a>Alors que le Qatar a connu une croissance r\u00e9guli\u00e8re, les \u00c9tats-Unis ont connu une croissance explosive, et le volume suit la capacit\u00e9.<\/p>\n Il en r\u00e9sulte un changement structurel. Le GNL am\u00e9ricain est majoritairement vendu via des contrats flexibles et \u00e0 court terme, index\u00e9s sur le prix du gaz Henry Hub, ce qui lui permet d'accro\u00eetre rapidement sa production et de r\u00e9pondre \u00e0 la demande spot. Le Qatar, quant \u00e0 lui, s'est appuy\u00e9 sur des contrats plurid\u00e9cennaux et une strat\u00e9gie de d\u00e9veloppement progressive et r\u00e9fl\u00e9chie. Les deux mod\u00e8les fonctionnent, mais au cours d'une d\u00e9cennie de forte croissance de la demande, celui qui a construit le plus rapidement a pris l'ascendant. Nous analysons en d\u00e9tail comment la position am\u00e9ricaine a \u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e9labor\u00e9e. La domination \u00e9nerg\u00e9tique des \u00c9tats-Unis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Qatar’s answer is the North Field expansion. By lifting capacity from 77 to about 142 million tonnes a year by around 2030, an increase of roughly 85 percent, QatarEnergy is positioning to reclaim the lead. Its chief executive Saad al Kaabi has said the expansion will supply close to 40 percent of new global LNG this decade and return Qatar to the position of the world’s largest LNG exporter (Tribune du Qatar<\/a>Nous abordons la strat\u00e9gie compl\u00e8te dans our dossier on Qatar’s North Field expansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Le succ\u00e8s de cette strat\u00e9gie d\u00e9pend du timing. Le march\u00e9 se dirige vers une vague d'offre et un exc\u00e9dent pr\u00e9vu, les \u00c9tats-Unis et le Qatar augmentant tous deux leurs volumes (AIE<\/a>). Qatar’s edge is cost: it is among the cheapest producers in the world, so it can keep exporting profitably at prices that squeeze rivals. The race for number one is really a race between American speed and Qatari cost.<\/p>\n Pour les acheteurs de gaz, le principal enjeu est le pouvoir de n\u00e9gociation. Avec l'expansion des \u00c9tats-Unis et du Qatar sur un march\u00e9 en d\u00e9clin, les acheteurs b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient d'un choix plus large et d'un pouvoir de n\u00e9gociation accru jusqu'\u00e0 la fin des ann\u00e9es 2020. Les plus avis\u00e9s s'assurent d\u00e8s maintenant des volumes importants \u00e0 bas prix sur le long terme. Pour les fournisseurs et les prestataires de services, ces deux projets repr\u00e9sentent des investissements colossaux, et les gagnants seront ceux qui sauront d\u00e9montrer leur capacit\u00e9 d'adaptation, leur fiabilit\u00e9 et leur conformit\u00e9 aux exigences de deux client\u00e8les tr\u00e8s diff\u00e9rentes.<\/p>\n La le\u00e7on principale pour le B2B \u00e9nerg\u00e9tique est que le leadership du march\u00e9 se construit, il ne s'h\u00e9rite pas. Le Qatar a d\u00e9tenu la premi\u00e8re place pendant vingt ans et l'a pourtant perdue au profit d'un constructeur plus rapide\u00a0; il vise d\u00e9sormais \u00e0 la reconqu\u00e9rir gr\u00e2ce aux co\u00fbts et aux contrats. Comparons la mani\u00e8re dont une grande entreprise g\u00e8re la m\u00eame mol\u00e9cule\u2026 TotalEnergies’ two pillar model<\/a>, et comment le Golfe repositionne le gaz dans ADNOC’s XRG bet<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No. As of 2025 the United States is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, shipping a record 111 million tonnes, about a quarter of the global market, and becoming the first country to pass 100 million tonnes in a single year. Qatar is second at roughly 78 million<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"p54_article_data":"{\"meta\":{\"kicker\":\"Answer \u00b7 LNG Markets\",\"topics\":[\"Analysis\",\"Energy\"],\"title\":\"Is Qatar the World's Largest LNG Exporter in 2026?\",\"dek\":\"Qatar held the LNG crown for years, then lost it. This answer sets out who leads global liquefied natural gas exports now, how the order changed, and why Qatar's North Field expansion is a bid to take the top spot back by 2030.\",\"date\":\"25 July 2026\",\"readTime\":\"9 min read\",\"author\":\"Project 54, Research & Strategy\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-25\"},\"quickAnswer\":{\"q\":\"Is Qatar the world's largest LNG exporter?\",\"a\":\"No. As of 2025 the United States is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, shipping a record 111 million tonnes, about a quarter of the global market, and becoming the first country to pass 100 million tonnes in a single year. Qatar is second at roughly 78 million tonnes, narrowly ahead of Australia in third, and together the three supply close to two thirds of world LNG. Qatar led global LNG exports for much of the past two decades but was overtaken as United States capacity surged. Qatar intends to reclaim the lead by around 2030 through its North Field expansion, which lifts its capacity from 77 to 142 million tonnes a year.\"},\"takeaways\":[\"The United States is the largest LNG exporter in 2025 at a record 111 million tonnes, about 25 percent of the global market, the first nation past 100 million tonnes in a year.\",\"Qatar is second at roughly 78 million tonnes and Australia third; the three together supply about 63 percent of global LNG.\",\"Qatar lost the top spot it long held because United States export capacity grew far faster, supplying the great majority of new global LNG in 2025.\",\"Qatar's North Field expansion to 142 million tonnes a year by around 2030 is an explicit bid to retake the lead.\"],\"sections\":[{\"id\":\"who\",\"q\":\"Who is the largest LNG exporter right now?\",\"h\":\"The United States, by a clear margin\",\"p\":[\"In 2025 the United States exported a record 111 million tonnes of LNG, about 25 percent of the global market, and became the first country ever to ship more than 100 million tonnes in a single year (US EIA<\/a>). United States exports rose 27 percent year on year, and by some counts the country supplied the overwhelming majority of all new global LNG supply added in 2025 (Forbes<\/a>).\",\"Qatar sits second at roughly 78 million tonnes, just ahead of Australia in third. Those three exporters together account for close to 63 percent of world LNG (EIA<\/a>). So the honest answer to the question is that Qatar is a very large exporter, but not the largest; the United States has taken that title.\"],\"table\":{\"cols\":[\"Rank 2025\",\"Exporter\",\"Approx. volume\",\"Share of global LNG\"],\"rows\":[[\"1\",\"United States\",\"about 111 million tonnes\",\"about 25 percent\"],[\"2\",\"Qatar\",\"about 78 million tonnes\",\"roughly one sixth\"],[\"3\",\"Australia\",\"about 75 million tonnes\",\"roughly one sixth\"],[\"-\",\"Top three combined\",\"-\",\"about 63 percent\"]]}},{\"id\":\"how-lost\",\"q\":\"How did Qatar lose the lead?\",\"h\":\"It did not shrink, the United States sprinted\",\"p\":[\"Qatar did not decline. It was outpaced. For most of the past two decades Qatar was the world's dominant LNG exporter, but from the late 2010s the United States built liquefaction capacity at extraordinary speed, adding train after train on the Gulf Coast (industry reporting<\/a>). Where Qatar grew steadily, the United States grew explosively, and volume follows capacity.\",\"The result is a structural shift. American LNG is largely sold on flexible, shorter contracts linked to the Henry Hub gas price, which let it scale fast and chase spot demand. Qatar leaned on multi decade contracts and a deliberate, staged buildout. Both models work, but in a decade of rapid demand growth the faster builder took the crown. We unpack how the American position was engineered in United States energy dominance<\/a>.\"]},{\"id\":\"reclaim\",\"q\":\"Can Qatar take the top spot back?\",\"h\":\"That is exactly what North Field is for\",\"p\":[\"Qatar's answer is the North Field expansion. By lifting capacity from 77 to about 142 million tonnes a year by around 2030, an increase of roughly 85 percent, QatarEnergy is positioning to reclaim the lead. Its chief executive Saad al Kaabi has said the expansion will supply close to 40 percent of new global LNG this decade and return Qatar to the position of the world's largest LNG exporter (Qatar Tribune<\/a>). We cover the full strategy in our dossier on Qatar's North Field expansion<\/a>.\",\"Whether it works depends on timing. The market is heading into a supply wave and forecast surplus, with both the United States and Qatar adding volume (IEA<\/a>). Qatar's edge is cost: it is among the cheapest producers in the world, so it can keep exporting profitably at prices that squeeze rivals. The race for number one is really a race between American speed and Qatari cost.\"]},{\"id\":\"matters\",\"q\":\"What does the ranking mean for buyers and suppliers?\",\"h\":\"Two suppliers, a buyers' market\",\"p\":[\"For gas buyers the headline is leverage. With the United States and Qatar both expanding into a softening market, buyers gain choice and negotiating power through the late 2020s, and the smart ones lock low priced long term volume now. For suppliers and service firms, both buildouts are enormous capital programmes, and the winners are those who can prove scale, reliability and compliance to two very different customers.\",\"The deeper lesson for energy B2B is that market leadership is engineered, not inherited. Qatar held the lead for twenty years and still lost it to a faster builder; it now aims to win it back on cost and contracts. Compare how a major plays the same molecule in TotalEnergies' two pillar model<\/a>, and how the Gulf is repositioning gas in ADNOC's XRG bet<\/a>.\"]}],\"media\":{\"image\":{\"src\":\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lng-gas-processing-export-terminal.jpg\",\"label\":\"The largest exporter title is decided at the liquefaction plant: whoever builds capacity fastest, and runs it cheapest, leads.\",\"credit\":\"Project 54\"},\"infographicLabel\":\"US 111 Mt, Qatar about 78 Mt, Australia about 75 Mt: the 2025 LNG export order, and Qatar's plan to retake number one.\",\"pdf\":{\"href\":\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/is-qatar-the-largest-lng-exporter.pdf\",\"title\":\"Is Qatar the Largest LNG Exporter, Slide Deck\",\"meta\":\"Project 54 \u00b7 The Energy Growth Brief\"}},\"poll\":{\"q\":\"The United States overtook Qatar as the largest LNG exporter. Who leads global LNG at the end of this decade?\",\"note\":\"No tallies. Each option maps to a real scenario.\",\"options\":[{\"id\":\"a\",\"label\":\"The United States stays number one\",\"insight\":\"Plausible. American capacity and newly approved projects are huge, and speed has been the winning trait. The risk is that low prices and tolling economics squeeze marginal US volume harder than Qatar's low cost supply.\"},{\"id\":\"b\",\"label\":\"Qatar retakes the lead\",\"insight\":\"This is Qatar's explicit goal via North Field to 142 Mtpa. Its cost edge means it can keep exporting when others cannot. The risk is timing and project slippage, with parts of the expansion drifting past 2030.\"},{\"id\":\"c\",\"label\":\"They effectively share it\",\"insight\":\"The most likely near term reality: two dominant low cost, high volume suppliers trading the top spot year to year while together controlling most new supply, with Australia a steady third.\"},{\"id\":\"d\",\"label\":\"A new entrant disrupts the order\",\"insight\":\"Least likely this decade. Others are growing, but none approach the scale of US or Qatari expansion; the top two are pulling away, not being caught.\"}]},\"faq\":[{\"q\":\"Is Qatar the largest LNG exporter?\",\"a\":\"No. As of 2025 the United States is the largest LNG exporter at about 111 million tonnes, roughly a quarter of the global market. Qatar is second at around 78 million tonnes, just ahead of Australia in third.\"},{\"q\":\"When did the United States overtake Qatar in LNG exports?\",\"a\":\"United States LNG exports outpaced Qatar's as American liquefaction capacity surged in the early 2020s, and by 2025 the United States shipped a record 111 million tonnes, the first country ever to pass 100 million tonnes in a single year, up 27 percent year on year.\"},{\"q\":\"How much LNG does Qatar export?\",\"a\":\"Qatar exports roughly 78 million tonnes of LNG a year from its current 77 million tonne capacity, placing it second globally. It plans to raise capacity to about 142 million tonnes a year by around 2030 through the North Field expansion.\"},{\"q\":\"Will Qatar become the largest LNG exporter again?\",\"a\":\"Qatar intends to. Its North Field expansion lifts capacity about 85 percent to 142 million tonnes a year by around 2030, and QatarEnergy says the programme will supply close to 40 percent of new global LNG this decade, aiming to reclaim the top spot from the United States.\"}],\"newsletter\":{\"kicker\":\"The Energy Growth Brief\",\"title\":[\"Intelligence,\",\"to your inbox\"],\"body\":\"Join energy and industrial leaders getting our marketing, AI-growth and revenue-architecture intelligence, direct, no filler.\",\"placeholder\":\"you@company.com\",\"cta\":\"Subscribe\",\"note\":\"No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. We read every reply.\"},\"related\":[{\"title\":\"Qatar's North Field LNG Expansion: The Market Share Play\",\"topic\":\"Analysis\",\"href\":\"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/qatar-north-field-lng-expansion-2026\/\"},{\"title\":\"United States Energy Dominance and the Oil Market\",\"topic\":\"Analysis\",\"href\":\"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/us-energy-dominance-spr-oil-market-2026\/\"},{\"title\":\"TotalEnergies' Two Pillar Bet: LNG Cash, Electricity Growth\",\"topic\":\"Analysis\",\"href\":\"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/totalenergies-two-pillar-strategy-lng-integrated-power\/\"},{\"title\":\"ADNOC's XRG: The Gas, Chemicals and AI Bet\",\"topic\":\"Analysis\",\"href\":\"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/adnoc-xrg-gas-chemicals-ai-bet\/\"}]}","p54_faq":"","p54_media":"","p54_comments_enabled":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-strategy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3931,"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/3931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectfifty4.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Comment le Qatar a-t-il perdu la t\u00eate du classement ?<\/h2>\n
Le Qatar peut-il reprendre la premi\u00e8re place ?<\/h2>\n
Que signifie ce classement pour les acheteurs et les fournisseurs\u00a0?<\/h2>\n