On February 24, 2016, the LNG carrier Asia Vision departed the Sabine Pass terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, carrying approximately 3.3 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas bound for Petrobras's TRBA terminal in Bahia, Brazil per Cheniere Energy press releases and EIA tracking. It was the first commercial LNG export cargo from the lower-48 United States in the modern era — Alaska's Kenai facility had exported small volumes earlier, but Sabine Pass was the first shale-era export.

The cargo's significance was not its size (3.3 Bcf is one cargo's worth, a fraction of a single day's U.S.

gas production), but what it represented: the U.S. had become an LNG-export country, and the global gas market gained a new marginal supplier.

Eight years later, by mid-2024, the U.S. operated approximately 13-14 Bcf/d of nameplate liquefaction capacity across seven major terminals (Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi by Cheniere; Cameron by Sempra; Freeport by Freeport LNG; Cove Point by Berkshire Hathaway Energy; Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines by Venture Global), with several more under construction (Rio Grande LNG by NextDecade, Corpus Christi Stage III, Plaquemines Phase 2, Calcasieu Pass 2, Port Arthur by Sempra) per the EIA Annual Energy Outlook and IEA Gas Market Report.