ABU DHABI, November 3. /TASS/. The international market lost about 45 mln metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from March to September 2026 due to the Hormuz Strait closure but the greater portion of such losses was managed to be offset by supplies from other countries, Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Philip Mshelbila said at the ADIPEC conference.

"One of the interesting things is that when you look at this market; I know when you look at the prices and you think, oh, this was a total disaster, our view is actually it could have been much worse. So if you take between March of this year and September, what was lost from the market was somewhere about 45 million tons of LNG that did not come to market as a result of issues on the Strait of Hormuz," Mshelbila said.

At the same time, about 39 mln metric tons out of these 45 mln metric tons were "brought to market mainly from North America, but also from other regions as well," the secretary general added.

New capacities came on stream and maintenance was "deferred in certain plants that were producing" to compensate the shortfall, Mshelbila said. Plants with capacity not utilized completely also managed to increased the utilization to cover LNG losses in the Middle East, he added.