America, Iran and China export less than 5% of their natural gas production while Norway ships more than 90% of its natural gas onto international trade markets.

Global exports of natural gas reached 1.242 trillion cubic meters in 2005, according to April 2008 statistics from the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook.

Total world gas exports represent about 38% of overall natural gas production. Global demand for natural gas, which is generally cleaner burning than other fossil fuels, is soaring.

The following analysis presents natural gas export statistics by country.

Top Ten Natural Gas Exporting Countries

The top four gas exporters account for more than a third of overall global exports.

1. Russia … 182 billion cubic meters (14.7% of estimated total world exports)

2. Canada … 101.9 billion cubic meters (8.2%)

3. Norway … 78.1 billion cubic meters (6.3%)

4. Algeria … 62.6 billion cubic meters (5%)

5. Turkmenistan … 58 billion cubic meters (4.7%)

6. Netherlands … 50.2 billion cubic meters (4%)

7. Indonesia … 29.6 billion cubic meters (2.4%)

8. Malaysia … 29.1 billion cubic meters (2.3%)

9. Qatar … 26 billion cubic meters (2.1%)

10. Trinidad and Tobago … 21 billion cubic meters (1.7%).

Other Natural Gas Exporting Nations

11. United States … 19.8 billion cubic meters (1.6% of estimated total world exports)

12. Australia … 12.9 billion cubic meters (1%)

13. Uzbekistan … 12.5 billion cubic meters (1%)

14. Nigeria … 11.6 billion cubic meters (0.9%)

15. Bolivia … 10.6 billion cubic meters (0.9%)

16. Kazakhstan … 10.2 billion cubic meters (0.8%)

17. Oman … 10.2 billion cubic meters (0.8%)

18. Germany … 9.4 billion cubic meters (0.8%)

19. United Kingdom … 8.8 billion cubic meters (0.7%)

20. Brunei … 8.78 billion cubic meters (0.7%)

21. Burma … 8.5 billion cubic meters (0.7%)

22. Egypt … 8 billion cubic meters (0.6%)

23. United Arab Emirates … 6.8 billion cubic meters (0.6%)

24. Argentina … 6.6 billion cubic meters (0.5%)

25. Denmark … 5.4 billion cubic meters (0.4%)

26. Libya … 5.3 billion cubic meters (0.4%)

27. Iran … 4.3 billion cubic meters (0.3%)

28. Ukraine … 4 billion cubic meters (0.3%)

29. China … 2.9 billion cubic meters (0.2%)

30. Austria … 936.1 million cubic meters (0.1%)

31. France … 863.2 million cubic meters (0.1%)

32. Italy … 379.8 million cubic meters (under 0.1%)

33. Slovakia … 354.9 million cubic meters

34. Mexico … 282.9 million cubic meters

35. Czech Republic … 81.5 million cubic meters

36. Poland … 42.2 million cubic meters.

For countries that export more than 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, data is organized below by the percentage of a country’s gas exports to its national domestic production.

Countries Exporting More Than 50% of Natural Gas Production

1. Norway … 93.6% of domestic natural gas production was exported
2. Bolivia … 83%
3. Turkmenistan … 80.2%
4. Brunei … 79.6%
5. Algeria … 74.2%
6. Burma … 68.1%
7. Netherlands … 65.0%
8. Kazakhstan … 61.1%
9. Qatar … 59.2%
10. Canada … 57.2%
11. Denmark … 54.2%
12. Nigeria … 53.8%
13. Oman … 53.7%
14. Trinidad and Tobago … 52.7%.

Countries Exporting Less Than 50% of Natural Gas Production

1. United States … 4% of domestic natural gas production was exported
2. Iran … 4.3%
3. China … 4.9%
4. United Kingdom … 10.5%
5. Argentina … 15.2%
6. United Arab Emirates … 15.2%
7. Ukraine … 19.2%
8. Egypt … 19.5%
9. Uzbekistan … 20%
10. Russia … 27.7%
11. Australia … 33.4%
12. Indonesia … 40%
13. Germany … 47.3%
14. Malaysia … 47.7%
15. Libya … 48.4%.