LNG Update 2022 Cost Methodology
Data
Calculations in this report are based on the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker (GGIT), Global Energy Monitor, July 2022 dataset, with minor updates as of September 2022. The July 2022 data are distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License and can be downloaded here. For more information see the GGIT Methodology page.
Methods
Cost estimates
Global Energy Monitor (GEM) estimates regional investment in LNG terminals in development by summing projected capital expenditures for each project within each region. Where available, GEM uses project cost estimates reported by the media, press releases, or other sources. Where reported project cost data are not available, GEM produces its own cost estimates according to the criteria below.
For projects without reported capital expenditure estimates, GEM extrapolates a cost using capacity data and estimates of global or regional costs per unit of capacity. These global and regional estimates are averages based on GEM’s data on reported cost estimates. GEM produces separate estimates of global and regional costs per unit of capacity for onshore export terminals, offshore export terminals, onshore import terminals, and offshore import terminals (see Table 1).
For onshore terminals, regional mean cost values are used where GEM has at least three instances of projects reporting cost and capacity information; otherwise, global mean values are used. For offshore terminals (for which there is generally less available data), global mean values are used across all regions.
Projects with reported cost estimates greater than US$1 billion per million tonnes per annum (mtpa) are considered outliers and are not used to calculate global or regional average costs, though they are added back into our global and regional estimates later.
| Onshore export terminals | Offshore export terminals | Onshore import terminals | Offshore import terminals | |||||
| Region | Number of data points | Regional cost (US$ million per mtpa) | Number of data points | Regional cost (US$ million per mtpa) | Number of data points | Regional cost (US$ million per mtpa) | Number of data points | Regional cost (US$ million per mtpa) |
| Australia and New Zealand | 4 | 595.0 | 567.5 | (1) | 269.7 | (3) | 137.6 | |
| East Asia | 589.2 | 567.5 | 15 | 351.6 | 137.6 | |||
| Eurasia | (1) | 589.2 | (1) | 567.5 | 269.7 | 137.6 | ||
| Europe | 589.2 | 567.5 | 15 | 232.5 | (14) | 137.6 | ||
| Latin America and the Caribbean | (3) | 523.9 | 567.5 | 4 | 310.5 | (3) | 137.6 | |
| Middle East and North Africa | 6 | 544.8 | 567.5 | (2) | 269.7 | 137.6 | ||
| North America | 12 | 578.0 | (4) | 567.5 | (2) | 269.7 | 137.6 | |
| SE Asia | (1) | 589.2 | 567.5 | 11 | 185.2 | (4) | 137.6 | |
| South Asia | 589.2 | 567.5 | 5 | 255.8 | (8) | 137.6 | ||
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 5 | 623.6 | (4) | 567.5 | 269.7 | (2) | 137.6 | |
| Global mean | 589.2 | 567.5 | 269.7 | 137.6 | ||||
