The United States grew and Canada shrank as natural gas exporters as the coronavirus pandemic spread in the first half of this year, according to the latest international trade scorecard from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The records, compiled by the DOE’s gas regulation office, showed that market diversity made the difference. American dealers used more outlets than their Canadian counterparts.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers and pipelines to Mexico propelled 22.5% U.S. export growth to 2.6 Tcf (14.4 Bcf/d) in the first half of 2020 (1H2020), compared with 2.1 Tcf (11.8 Bcf/d) in the same period of 2019.

Canada relied entirely on U.S. markets, with the nation’s first LNG terminal by Royal Dutch Shell plc and its partners still under construction on the...