On February 24 the liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Asia Vision left Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana carrying the first-ever shale-derived LNG exported from the lower 48 states of the U.S.

LNG exports to Japan have been carried out from the Kenai LNG plant, located in Nikiski, Alaska, by Phillips Petroleum, and later ConocoPhillips, since the late 1960s.

British multinational oil and gas company BG Group is shipping the gas to buyers in Brazil under the terms of a long-term offtake agreement the company signed with Cheniere in 2011.

Cheniere built the Sabine Pass facility as an import terminal in 2008, when U.S. gas production was significantly lower and it appeared that the domestic market would require supplemental supplies from overseas. Soon after, the U.S. shale boom began in earnest, and Cheniere converted the import terminal into an export terminal to take advantage of market conditions.

Cheniere originally built the Sabine Pass facility as an import terminal. Image credit: Cheniere Energy.With the recent drop in gas prices—in part due to the success of U.S. fracking—the profitability of LNG exports is in question. Over a dozen other U.S. LNG export projects have sought regulatory approval in the past several years whose economic viability is also now uncertain.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the total liquefaction capacity currently under construction in the U.S. is 68 million tons per annum, which could make the U.S. the third-largest LNG exporter in the world by 2020, after Australia and Qatar.