US liquid fuel net imports are projected to drop from 60 percent in domestic consumption in 2005 and 40 percent in 2012 to 25 percent in 2016, according to the 2014 energy outlook report by the US Energy Information Agency.
The EIA statistics indicated that the US would become a natural gas net exporter by 2018.
The EIA said that major economies relying on imports of liquid fuel and gas imports are expected to grow in the next few years. China, Japan and the OECD European members will each import at least 65 percent of their oil and 35 percent of gas for domestic consumption. They will be catching up with Japan, whose oil and gas imports account for more than 95 percent of domestic consumption.
Reasons behind these changes vary among emerging markets and developed economic entities, according to the EIA.