According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States exported more natural gas than it imported in 2017, the first time since 1957 that the US has been a net natural gas exporter. The main drivers behind this trend are the growth of domestic natural gas production, that reduced gas imports from Canada (both by pipeline and LNG) and raised gas exports (by pipeline and LNG as well).
The US surpassed Russia as the world's largest natural gas producer in 2009 thanks to the shale gas production increase, most of which has been concentrated in the Appalachia region (Utica and Marcellus shales). The domestic natural gas production reached an average of 73.6 Bcf/d in 2017 (2 bcm/d or 758 bcm/year), which is 1% more than in 2016.
The development of domestic gas pipelines helped supplying US gas to the Midwest and Northeast regions, displacing Canadian imports and raising US pipeline exports to Canada. In addition, the US natural gas pipeline capacity into Mexico has increased over the past few years, driven by favourable prices compared with natural gas supplied by LNG shipments and demand growth for natural gas from Mexico's power sector: US gas exports to Mexico have more than doubled since 2014, averaging 4.2 bcf/d (119 mcm/d) in 2017. Finally, new LNG export terminals came on stream in 2016 and 2017, contributing to boost LNG exports.
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