Houston-based Cheniere Energy is gearing up to send its first supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Sabine Pass export terminal on the US Gulf Coast to Asian customers as a rise in prices in the region have made such shipments profitable, an official told Reuters.

The plans signal how the US shale gas revolution is sending ripples across the globe and suggest regional markets, once disparate on pricing, are starting to align. Asian spot LNG prices for the supercooled fuel, while low compared to 2014, were last quoted at $7.30 per million British thermal units, up from as low as $4 in April. Even as mega-projects in Australia ramp up production, the higher prices mean it has become commercially viable to send shipments from the US Gulf Coast through the enlarged Panama Canal and across the Pacific. Shipping big LNG cargoes to Asia became possible after the expansion of the Panama Canal in June.

"Recently because of the pick-up in Asian LNG prices to above $7 we can start to deliver to north Asia," the official told Reuters, requesting anonymity because supply details have not been finalised. "At the current market level it is a good price."

The cargoes will be delivered in the next one or two months, with China or South Korea the most likely destinations in North Asia, the official said.

Using the Panama Canal shaves distances between the Gulf of Mexico and Asia to about 14,500 kilometres (9,000 miles) from 25,600.