Beginning in 2021, the net value of U.S. natural gas exports reached $30 billion, exceeding soybean exports by $3 billion, and has since ranged between $23 and $43 billion annually—either matching or surpassing the contribution of soybeans, which reduced the U.S. trade deficit by between $16 and $34 billion over the 2022–2025 period.
Soybeans have held a top spot in U.S. trade towards reducing U.S trade deficits; between 2022 and 2025 they reduced the deficit between $16 and $34 billion.
With the record amounts of natural gas production that started in the mid2010s due to improvements in extraction technologies, the U.S. accelerated natural gas exports both via pipelines and LNG.
Beginning in 2021, the value of net U.S. natural gas exports reached $30 billion exceeding those of soybeans by $3 billion. Since then, they have either kept pace or exceeded those of soybeans, ranging between $23 and $43 billion annually.
The U.S. has long run increasing deficits in its international trade of goods and services with the 2025 deficit reaching $912 billion. Nevertheless, the size of these deficits is mitigated through the net value of certain commodity exports, notably soybeans and LNG.
To note, 2025 U.S. soybean exports were curtailed due to the trade war with China, until then the largest importer of U.S. soybeans.
In addition, European sanctions policy against Russia leading to curtailments of Russian pipelined natural gas have increased reliance on U.S. LNG, making Europe the largest destination for U.S. LNG.
For more information on this chart, please contact Max Pyziur (maxp@eprinc.org).
From the EPRINC Chart of the Week archive.