A giant winter storm sweeping the United States could disrupt global supplies of one of the largest exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG), tightening a market that has seen steep price swings this year, Oilprice.com reported.

Because of the Arctic cyclone in the U.S., power outages for millions of households, in addition, thousands of flights were canceled because of the weather. Shortly before the Christmas holiday almost 250 million people in the United States and Canada were somehow affected by the storm.

Severe freeze warnings were issued for all states along the U.S. Gulf Coast - Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.

While the Texas power grid avoided catastrophic disruptions during the storm, shipping agencies warned that shipping traffic could be disrupted on waterways serving the largest LNG export terminal at Sabin Pass.

Frosts could delay or suspend pilot traffic on the Sabin-Neches waterway serving Sabin Pass. Moreover, pilots have suspended mooring vessels at the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas because of extreme winter weather conditions, Moran Shipping reports. As a result, ship traffic to the Corpus Christi LNG export facility could be affected.

A winter storm in the U.S. over Christmas could be the latest extreme event to affect the global LNG market this year.

Just last week, a fire at the Prelude floating LNG export facility offshore Australia forced operator Shell to shut down production just three months after Prelude resumed operations.

Australia is also one of the world's largest LNG exporters, along with the United States and Qatar, but it was U.S. LNG that helped Europe reach comfortable levels of storage gas ahead of this winter.

The United States has shipped record amounts of LNG to Europe to help its EU allies, and in recent months, about 70% of all U.S. LNG exports have gone to Europe.

LNG prices rose to record highs earlier this year as Europe sought to stockpile the supercooled fuel ahead of this winter. The EU's desire to shed its dependence on Russian gas has made Europe the preferred destination for LNG cargoes under flexible contracts, especially from the U.S.

The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) estimates that between January and November, EU and UK LNG imports combined rose 65% year on year. Imports from the United States alone were up 176%, while imports from other sources were up 27%. According to OIES, global LNG exports grew by only 5.5% over the same period, with nearly half of that growth coming from the United States.

According to analysts and industry representatives, Europe will need even more LNG supplies next year to compensate for low (or possibly non-existent) pipeline flows from Russia.

As Russian pipeline gas supplies fall next year, Europe will need huge volumes of LNG, a Trafigura trader said earlier this month, adding that he expects volatility in the natural gas and LNG markets to continue.