The United States was a net exporter of natural gas in the first quarter of 2018, with net exports averaging 0.6 Bcf/d. In 2017 as a whole, the United States was a net exporter of natural gas for the first time since 1957. Both LNG exports and pipeline exports have contributed to this shift in natural gas exports.
Since the beginning of 2016, four trains at the Sabine Pass liquefaction terminal in Louisiana have come online (total peak nameplate liquefaction capacity of 2.8 Bcf/d) as has the Cove Point liquefaction terminal in Maryland (0.8 Bcf/d peak nameplate capacity). The amount of U.S. natural gas exported as LNG averaged 2.6 Bcf/d equivalent in the first quarter of 2018, 1.0 Bcf/d (62%) more than in the same period last year. EIA expects the United States to have a total liquefaction capacity of 9.6 Bcf/d by the end of 2020.
U.S. exports to Mexico via pipeline have also been increasing as more infrastructure has been built to transport natural gas both to and within Mexico. Mexico pipeline exports averaged 4.3 Bcf/d in the first three months of 2018, compared to 4.1 Bcf/d in the first three months of 2017, and 3.3 Bcf/d in the first three months of 2016. Exports to Mexico are expected to continue to increase as more natural gas-fired power plants come online in Mexico.
U.S. net natural gas pipeline imports from Canada decreased from 2016 to 2017, in part because of the increasing U.S. exports to Canada, particularly from the U.S. Northeast. This decrease in net imports is expected to continue as the Rover and NEXUS pipelines begin to deliver additional supplies of low-cost natural gas from the Appalachia basin to the markets in the U.S. Midwest and eastern Canada.
EIA projects U.S. natural gas exports will continue growing through 2050 in its Annual Energy Outlook 2018 Reference case, as well as across most side cases.
