US LNG exports grow dramatically since 2016

Stratfor:

The U.S. shale revolution has had a major impact at home, but its echoes have reverberated less elsewhere around the world, at least where natural gas is concerned. That, however, is about to change. By the end of 2018, the United States will launch nine liquefied natural gas export projects that will have a collective liquefaction capacity of 36.7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). The expansion will boost the country's capacity to roughly 63 mtpa — a big step up from the mere 1.5 mtpa that existed before 2016.

It all adds up to a big year in 2019. And growth in U.S. LNG exports will continue beyond that because more processing and liquefaction facilities are expected to come online the following year. Producers are also considering additional final investment decisions to construct new facilities beyond that. The consequences of rising U.S. — as well as Australian — LNG exports have already begun to make waves throughout the market, meaning the geopolitical battle over LNG will be front and center next year, particularly among four countries: Qatar, China, Russia and the United States.

The United States and Australia are likely to be joined by others as countries around the world look for an increase in global natural gas demand in the 2020s. Last month, Royal Dutch/Shell and its partners made a final investment decision on its large LNG Canada project, which was its first such decision on a such a project in more than five years.

For years, Qatar has been the globe's LNG export leader. In 1997, the tiny Gulf state exported no LNG, but by 2011, it led the world, with an installed capacity of 77 mtpa. But in 2005, Doha implemented a moratorium on developing new parts of the North Field, the world's largest gas supply, due to concerns about oversupply and overproduction.
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Avoiding U.S. LNG, however, might not be so easy. As the United States embroils itself in trade wars, other countries are considering the purchase of more U.S. LNG as a means of appeasing U.S. President Donald Trump in their trade discussions. After all, given that 2019 is expected to be a bumper year for U.S. LNG, importing more of the resource from the United States offers the country's trading partners a quick, obvious and tangible way of reducing their trade surpluses. More than that, U.S. LNG represents a potential investment opportunity that could placate the United States. South Korea, Japan and even China — all countries that must import LNG — were mulling investments in the U.S. LNG industry even before experiencing pressure from the White House.
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There is much more.

The US LNG market is already putting pressure on Russia which in the past has been supplying natural gas to Europe.  Many European countries now see Russian gas as a strategic vulnerability to a source that is not always reliable.  There has also been an indication that Trump's trade war with China may reach a resolution in the near future which should give another boost to the US market.