US liquefied natural gas exports climbed in September with European buyers outbidding Asian utilities for available cargoes, according to vessel-tracking data from LSEG reported by Reuters.

The LSEG readings, drawn from shipping movements at US export terminals, point to a reordering of the Atlantic-Pacific price spread that earlier in the year had run the other way. Through September, European offtake absorbed US cargoes at delivered prices above what Asian buyers were willing to pay, a pattern that trade desks monitor closely because it shifts netbacks at US liquefaction plants and reshapes where merchant cargoes ultimately discharge.

What does the LSEG data show?

The data set tracks vessel arrivals and departures from US loading terminals and cross-references them against declared discharge ports. Reuters reported the September findings; LSEG, which owns the shipping and commodities analytics operations formerly marketed as Reuters shipping, compiles the underlying flows. Operators along the US Gulf Coast and the East Coast disclose loading data in customs filings that feed the LSEG analytics pipeline.

For the US LNG sector, the September read matters because destination mix shapes realised prices on merchant cargoes and on volumes sold under long-term contracts with destination-flexibility clauses. European buyers typically pay premiums over the JKM benchmark during peak heating-season pull, so a month in which European bids clear the market tends to lift average netbacks at Gulf Coast terminals relative to a month dominated by Asian offtake. The arithmetic shows up most clearly in the spot cargo programmes that US developers sell to traders between long-term deliveries.

Why Europe reclaimed the price leadership

The September shift reverses the pricing dynamic that held through portions of summer, when Asian cooling demand and competition from spot supply in the Middle East had propped up JKM relative to TTF. As Northwest European temperatures dropped and storage trajectories drew closer to seasonal norms, TTF firmed, and European utilities resumed their post-2022 role as the marginal price-setter for flexible US supply.

The pattern remains consistent with the structural reset in European gas demand that took hold when Russian pipeline volumes fell away. Even with strong summer injections, European utilities have continued to procure LNG on a tighter hand-to-mouth basis, leaving the continent sensitive to any pull from Asia or to weather-driven demand spikes. The result is that US export terminals serving the Atlantic basin remain the swing supplier that closes whatever gap Asia or Europe leaves open.

What to watch next

The next LSEG export read, covering October loadings, will indicate whether the September destination shift was a one-month reaction to temperature and storage dynamics or a more durable realignment heading into peak northern-hemisphere heating demand. Watch item: the direction of the JKM-TTF spread, which sets Atlantic-Pacific cargo flows through the winter and frames the realised netback for US merchant volumes.