LNG contribution to merchandise exports (based on balance of payments)

Reader JohnH claims:

LNG is the third largest US export and the fastest growing.

But I believe that he/she misread the table in article (see the table at the end of the post), and this is natural gas as well as Taken together, LNG is the third most important export category. If I go to BEA – US merchandise trade (IDS-0008), and (painstakingly) uploading data on “liquefied natural gas and gases mfd” and total merchandise exports (based on balance of payments, seasonally adjusted), I get this picture:

Figure 1: Non-LNG exports (yellow bar) and LNG exports (blue bar) in millions of US$, seasonally adjusted quarterly. Peak-to-trough dates as determined by the NBER are shaded in grey. Source: BEA, NBER and author’s calculations.

As for the contribution to the export of goods, here is the corresponding picture.

Figure 2: Quarterly change in non-LNG exports (yellow bar) and change in LNG exports (blue bar), both in millions of US$, quarterly seasonally adjusted. Peak-to-trough dates as determined by the NBER are shaded in grey. Source: BEA, NBER and author’s calculations.

I will let readers decide if LNG exports (No natural gas and LNG) have contributed greatly to US merchandise exports.

Bottom line: read your article (and table) carefully.

Note: JohnH is the same person who claimed that the US government did not report median wages and/or income adjusted for inflation. See [1], [2], [3].

The top 10 exports accounted for a third of all US exports in the first four months … [+]

USTRADENUMBERS.COM

Source: Roberts, Forbes (June 28, 2022).