LNG chain: Efficiency and losses

The tenth of the gas burned before a cargo even sails

What this tab covers How much energy is lost while it moves and while it waits in storage or transit, and how much energy the transport itself consumes, in per cent.

LNG is energy-hungry: running the refrigeration plant consumes roughly a tenth of the gas before it leaves port, and a little more boils off each day at sea.

Chart: Efficiency ranges

Used to drive transport Lost in transit

Losses by measure

Measure	Range	Type	What is measured
Liquefaction energy use	9 to 15%⁸⁵³¹	Used to drive transport	Gas burned to liquefy, as a share of the energy in the LNG: 4,200 to 7,400 MJ per tonne in life-cycle inventories, divided by about 48 MJ per kg (calculated). EIA estimates about 14% of US feed gas is used in liquefaction
Boil-off at sea, typical	0.07 to 0.15% of cargo per day⁶⁷	Lost while held	Liquid evaporated by heat leaking into tanks; 0.15% per day was standard around 2010, new membrane systems are guaranteed at 0.07 to 0.085%
Boil-off over a 20-day voyage	1.4 to 3%⁶⁷	Lost in transit	0.07 to 0.15% per day times 20 days (calculated); mostly burned as ship fuel rather than wasted
Regasification energy	0.1 to 0.7%⁸	Used to drive transport	Gas used at the import terminal as a share of energy sent out, two life-cycle databases (calculated from 0.00085 to 0.0069 MJ per MJ); seawater vaporisers sit at the low end

Holding periods and inventory

Measure	Value
Import terminal use	World regasification capacity ran at only 38.6% on average in 2024, so much of it is standby security²
Liquefaction plant use	86.7% average utilisation in 2024²

The big energy cost is at the start. Refrigeration compressors are usually driven by gas turbines, which turn only about 35% of fuel energy into shaft work, so roughly 9 to 15% of the energy in the gas is used to liquefy it (calculated from life-cycle data; EIA puts US plants at about 14% of feed gas). Electric drives fed by low-carbon power cut this.

At sea, heat leaking through the insulation boils off 0.07 to 0.15% of the cargo per day depending on tank design. Most is burned in the ship's engines, so it is fuel use rather than pure loss, and ships keep a small 'heel' of LNG to keep tanks cold on the way back. Regasification uses well under 1%. In total the LNG route uses several times more energy than a pipeline, which burns about 2 to 3% of its gas per 1,000 km (calculated).

Sources

2025 World LNG Report International Gas Union, 2025
Natural gas deliveries to U.S. LNG export facilities set a record in first-half 2023 US EIA, Today in Energy, 2023
Boil off rate (BOR) Wartsila Encyclopedia, 2024
NO96 Super+ GTT, 2024
Analysis of the greenhouse gas intensities of LNG imports to Germany (Munter and Liebich), final report ifeu for Wissenschaftsplattform Klimaschutz, 2023
2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Vol. 2, Ch. 1, Table 1.2 (default net calorific values) IPCC, 2006