It appears that the Trump Administration can’t have it all. Soaring LNG exports to assert America’s energy dominance have intensified competition for U.S. natural gas supply, pushing domestic energy prices higher—the opposite of what President Trump promised during his election campaign at this time last year.

As more U.S. LNG export facilities come online or ramp up operations, demand for LNG exports is set to exceed U.S. residential gas demand for the first time ever, according to estimates by Reuters based on the year-to-date growth trends.

LNG Feedgas Demand Set to Top Residential Use

The electric power sector remains the single biggest user of U.S. natural gas production, but LNG export demand has grown each year since America’s first exports in 2016.

Residential consumption held a higher share of LNG exports as a source of U.S. gas demand in the first half of the year, when temperatures are typically the lowest and demand for space heating is the highest. But U.S. LNG exports usually accelerate in the second half of any year as Europe and Asia are rushing to fill up storage ahead of winter.

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If this trend pans out this year, and all signs point to that, then LNG feedgas demand will outstrip residential gas use, Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire notes.

Energy Prices Soar

With heated competition for America’s natural gas production from LNG export plants, residential gas utility prices have jumped in recent months.

U.S. policymakers could soon be confronted with uncomfortably high energy costs for consumers and accelerating inflation.

Electricity use has become more common for residential heating in the United States in recent years, with its share surging to 42% in 2024, from 35% in 2010, data from the American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau showed earlier this month.

Natural gas remains the preferred source of space heating, with 47% of households heating with gas last year, but the share is down from 49% in 2010.

“Evolving trends in home heating fuels reflect shifts in housing populations, changes in technology and policy, and decisions by households and home builders,” the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

Homes exposed to warmer temperatures in the South and West are more likely to use electricity as their main heating fuel, per the EIA’s latest available Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS).

Despite the rise in electricity as the main space heating, natural gas still has the biggest share, and bills have jumped over the past few years.

Consumer prices for utility (piped) gas service jumped by 13.8% in the year to August 2025, the highest price increase in any consumer item in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation CPI report.

The U.S. average consumer price of natural gas in the residential sector soared from $12.34 per thousand cubic feet in January 2025 to as much as $25.27 per thousand cubic feet in July 2025, data from the EIA’s latest Natural Gas Monthly report revealed.

Higher natural gas prices and increased demand for feedgas to LNG export facilities have hiked energy costs for households.

Year to date, the benchmark U.S. natural gas futures at Henry Hub have traded at an average 37% higher compared to the 2024 average.

LNG Export Boom

This year, the Trump Administration provided a shot in the arm to U.S. LNG exporters, who saw the reversal of the Biden Administration’s pause on new LNG project approvals.

Encouraged by the current Administration, LNG developers are taking advantage of the market and regulatory tailwinds to approve investments in new projects.

Australia’s Woodside has announced the FID for the Louisiana LNG project and plans to start production in 2029. U.S. LNG exporter Venture Global in July took FID and successfully closed the $15.1 billion project financing for the first phase of the company’s third project, CP2 LNG (CP2), together with the associated CP Express Pipeline. And top U.S. exporter Cheniere has made a positive FID for the Corpus Christi Midscale Trains 8 & 9 and Debottlenecking Project.

These projects will boost global LNG supply and domestic feedgas demand toward the end of the decade. But there are other projects that will imminently increase American LNG export capacity.

The U.S will add 5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in LNG export capacity in this year and next, as Plaquemines LNG and Corpus Christi LNG Stage 3 projects come online, the EIA projects in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook for October. The EIA assesses that additions to LNG export capacity will boost total LNG exports to 14.7 Bcf/d this year, and to 16.3 Bcf/d in 2026, up from 11.9 Bcf/d in 2024.

LNG exporters in the United States have announced plans to more than double U.S. liquefaction capacity, adding an estimated 13.9 Bcf/d between 2025 and 2029, the EIA estimated last week. The United States is already the world’s largest LNG exporter and has 15.4 Bcf/d of operating export capacity.

While surging LNG exports are perfectly in line with the Trump Administration’s “energy dominance” agenda, soaring feedgas demand is putting upward pressure on residential gas prices in the United States.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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