According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States were a net exporter of natural gas in 2018, which entails both atural gas by pipeline to both Canada and Mexico and LNG shipments to other countries. US net gas exports stood at 4.6 bcf/d (130 mcm/d) in February 2019, the 13th month without interruption of net exports. Most of gas exports are sent via pipeline to Canada and Mexico; exports to Canada are rather seasonal, while shipments to Mexico are steadier. Most of the growth in gas exports is driven by the domestic gas production growth in the Permian Basin in western Texas as new pipelines were installed and as natural gas-fired power plant projects in Mexico entered service.
LNG exports have been growing in recent years. In 2018, three LNG projects entered service: a train liquefaction train at the Cove Point terminal in Maryland, another one at the Sabine Pass terminal near the Louisiana-Texas border and a third one at the Corpus Christi terminal in southern Texas. They enabled the level of US LNG export to skyrocket and this trend is likely to continue in 2019 as new export projects are being commissioned. The US EIA expects US net gas exports to rise to 4.7 bcf/d (133 mcm/d or 48.5 bcm/year) in 2019 and 7.5 bcf/d in 2020 (212 mcm/d or 77.5 bcm/year), spurred by LNG exports.
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