Numbers released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy show that Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass terminal shipped out 23.35 bcf of LNG between Feb. 24, when the maiden cargo embarked, and the end of April. Of this total, 21.51 bcf was domestically produced LNG, and much of the balance comprised re-exports.

Against this, imports logged from January through the end of April were 34.76 bcf.

Tracking the progress of export and import totals through the rest of calendar 2016 promises to be an entertaining exercise, given a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projection that the nation will export more LNG than it imports this year.

DOE data, however, also reflect the weak pricing environment in which this feat is likely to be achieved. The price at export point for all Sabine Pass cargoes ranged between $3.35-$3.85 per million Btu. Landed cost of imports this year has ranged between $3.07-$5.83 per million Btu for nonspot cargoes, with a noticeable decline seen after March.

These statistics encapsulate the wider LNG story. What was once a hot import market shriveled away in the wake of the shale revolution, idling expensive shore-side import infrastructure equipped to re-gasify incoming cargoes. U.S. LNG imports fell from a peak of 770.81 bcf to 59.28 bcf in 2014, the lowest annual figure since 1996, before rebounding weakly to 91.51 bcf last year. According to the DOE figures, eight of the 11 deepwater LNG import facilities in the U.S. have remained entirely idle so far into 2016.

The abundance of stateside shale gas, however, sparked serious interest in exporting LNG. Cheniere is leading the pack of firms that are committing resources to develop equally expensive shore-side infrastructure to liquefy natural gas to make it ready for waterborne exports. Sabine Pass is the first of several projects designed for this purpose.

The jury remains out on U.S. export prospects. Far East LNG demand, which the U.S. hopes to fulfill, is not what it promised to be five years ago, and buoyant LNG exporters such as Australia also are closer at hand to supply that market. The expanded Panama Canal, which opens later this month, may not see an early rush of LNG carriers seeking to capitalize on an import market on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. must turn to other buyers instead: and indeed, all Sabine pass LNG exports logged in DOE annals through the end of April have gone to markets such as Brazil, Argentina, India and the United Arab Emirates, plus one European lifting that headed to Portugal.