The Department of Energy’s Natural Gas Imports and Exports Third Quarter Report 2018 highlights all the important transactions of the precious fossil fuel from July through September last year.

• Total U.S. exports were 918.7 Bfc, about 13 percent higher than the previous quarter and about 24 percent higher compared to 2017.
• Total imports decreased by 0.1 percent compared to the second quarter of 2018 and 3.7 percent from the third quarter of 2017.
• The lower-48 states exported a total of 271.1 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of liquified natural gas (LNG) through the Sabine Pass LNG and the Cove Point LNG export facilities.
• U.S. supper chilled natural gas was transported to more than 20 countries by vessel including China, Mexico, United Kingdom and the U.A.E.
• Pipeline imports from Canada went down by 1 percent and imports from Mexico jumped up more than 200 percent, although from a very small base volume.
• U.S. exports of LNG through the first half of 2018 rose 58 percent compared with the same period in 2017, which marked the first time the U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas in almost 60 years.

The U.S. is poised to become the third largest exporter of liquefied natural gas behind Australia and Qatar as export capacity is projected to reach 8.9 billion cubic feet per day by the end of next year up from the current capacity of 3.6 billion cubic feet, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration published in December.