As far as LNG Allies President and CEO Fred Hutchison is concerned, the developing $100 billion LNG export market is an American success story that is continuing to unfold.

The U.S. jumped into the LNG export market last year and has already become a player on the world stage with just two terminals—Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Cove Point in Maryland. But with four more terminals set to open next year the U.S. is expected to export as much as 10 Bcf/d of gas by late 2020, which is triple what is leaving the country today.

That will place the U.S. among the top three exporters of natural gas in the world along with Australia and Qatar.

“It’s a success story that is still developing, but one that is not just hypothetical anymore,” Hutchison said. “We’re in it.

“There are very few industries that have been created in the United States in the last two or three decades that really rival the potential of this in regards to the economic benefits to the country and GDP as well as the job creation.”

Once a country that seemed destined to be primarily an importer of gas, the U.S. and its vast resources are set to become major suppliers primarily in Asia thanks in large part to the shale revolution.

Hutchison estimates there will be $56 billion to $80 billion per year of economic activity in the country due to the uptick in the export of natural gas. He also believes between 200,000 and 300,000 jobs will be created among the export terminals, upstream segment, direct jobs, indirect jobs and induced jobs.

There could be anywhere from $1.7 trillion to $3.3 trillion in economic activity during the lifetime of these projects which will last through 2050, according to Hutchison.

“What jumps out at me is the historical good fortune that we now find ourselves in,” he said. “Ten years ago we were expecting to be importing a lot of gas in the future and in just a period of 10 years we have gone from scarcity to abundance, we have gone from terminals that are import terminals and now all of them are proposing to add export capabilities.”

Four major projects are expected to come online soon: Elba Island LNG in Georgia and Cameron LNG in Louisiana this year followed by Freeport LNG and Corpus Christi LNG. When these facilities are all online, the U.S. will surpass Malaysia as the third-largest LNG exporter by 2020 and will trail only Australia and Qatar.

That’s major progress when you consider in 2011, Cheniere Energy was a little-known company with big ambitions when it signed an $8 billion contract that would transform the U.S. into an exporter of LNG after decades of relying on foreign suppliers.

“The first wave of plants will be important to place the United States firmly in the top three LNG exporters after Qatar and Australia,” said Stratas Advisors director George Popps. “While Australia may take the top spot briefly, Qatar has announced plans to reopen development of the North Field with the goal of increasing capacity to 125 million tonnes per annum by 2023 or so.”

“It’s very robust,” Hutchison said of the U.S. LNG export market. “We are going to be at about 10 Bcf/d, which is slightly more than 10% of what we would be producing the U.S. by 2020. That could grow, it could double. It could triple possibly, depending on demand.”

The opportunity to become a player in the world export market allows the U.S. to make up some ground on the uneven import-export playing field of which the country has long found itself on the losing end. With most of the world’s LNG consumed in Asia—primarily China, Japan, Taiwan, India and South Korea—the U.S. could make up some ground where it has maintained trade deficits.

While LNG certainly won't eliminate these gaps, natural gas exports to Asia are a step toward restoring some of the trade balance between the U.S. and its Asian trading partners. And while the construction and operation of these liquefaction plants will contribute to job creation, it is important to remember that those plants do not exist in a vacuum. LNG exports will require upstream gas supply, of course, and everything else that goes along with it—pipeline construction and maintenance, geologists, engineers and others that all contribute throughout the value chain.

“It’s a position that will give us more strength politically,” Hutchison said. “Not to use gas as weapons which some of our competitors do but to really say to some of our highest sources, `We have excess gas in the United States and we can provide some of that to you …. So this is an exciting time.”

Terrance Harris can be reached at tharris@hartenergy.com.