No shipyards in the United States can build carrier ships capable of transporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro acknowledged in a congressional testimony on Wednesday.

"We've lost that art here in the United States. We can't even build our own LNG ships here in the United States," Del Toro told the US House Armed Services Committee.

According to shipbuilding records, the last time a US shipyard produced an LNG tanker was in 1980. In total, 16 LNG ships were built in the United States between 1977 and 1980.

Since then, the United States has ordered its tankers abroad, including in South Korea, and essentially stopped building such vessels at US shipyards.

British energy giant Shell's LNG Outlook 2024 report showed that the US became the largest exporter of LNG in 2023. According to the report, in 2023 alone, the US exported 86 million tons of LNG, followed by Australia and Qatar, both of which have exported around 80 million tons. It also noted that global demand for liquefied natural gas will increase by more than 50% in less than two decades. 

While the United States has become the world’s largest LNG exporter amid the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions imposed on Russian gas deliveries, US companies continue to rely on foreign-flagged ships to deliver their gas to Europe – the primary destination for US LNG vessels.

In January, President Joe Biden paused the approval of new LNG exports in the United States, citing a need to assess better climate, health, and economic considerations of pending licenses.

Read more: Europe shifts to LNG as energy demands decrease by 20%