In February 2016, the first shipment of USA LNG left Sabine Pass from the Louisiana/Texas border en route to Brazil.
Since this event, US LNG cargoes have been delivered to 20 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, and India. There have also been deliveries to Middle Eastern buyers in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). During June, two USA LNG deliveries were made in Europe, to Rotterdam and Poland. This is a significant development for the United States, which just a decade ago was experiencing declining domestic production and was building LNG terminals to import LNG to supplement domestic supplies. This transformation is the direct result of the improved horizontal fracturing drilling techniques for oil and natural gas that has revolutionized the United States energy industry in the last several years.
While Sabine Pass was the first LNG export terminal, there are a total of 15 LNG export terminals that have been approved by the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) with a total capacity of approximately 17 Billion Cubic Feet per day (BCFD). This is occurring amid a global expansion of LNG production, with the largest LNG exporters being Qatar and Australia. It Is also occurring against a backdrop of the United States being a net exporter of all natural gas by 2018.