America’s increase in oil and gas production, driven primarily by fracking of shale plays, is helping to lift the nation’s exports to an all-time high and reduce the trade deficit, according to figures released last week by the Department of Commerce.

The total trade gap fell to $40.6 billion in October, the latest month for which figures are available, down $2.4 billion from the prior month and down $2 billion from October of 2012.

The agency reported that imports of crude oil during the first 10 months of 2013 totaled 2.366 billion barrels, with a value of $231.3 billion (at an average price of $97.77 per barrel.) For the same period a year earlier, crude oil imports totaled 2.626 billion barrels, with a value of $267.9 billion (at $102.01 per barrel.)

That’s a decline of 9.9% in volume, while the outflow of dollars fell by 13.7%, or $36.6 billion.

Imports of all energy-related petroleum products from January through October of this year totaled 2.993 billion barrels, worth $299.4 billion, compared to 3.252 billion barrels worth $338.9 billion for the same period in 2012.

Volume was down 7.9%, while dollars sent abroad fell by 11.6%, or $39.5 billion.

Imports of crude oil averaged 7.8 million barrels per day from January through October of 2013, down from 8.6 million barrels per day for the same period in 2012. That lower pace of crude oil imports had the effect of reducing the trade deficit by $81 million per day.

U.S. exports of crude oil during the first 10 months of this year totaled $3.45 billion, almost double the $1.87 billion of the year-earlier period. Natural gas exports totaled $5.2 billion, up more than a third from the $3.86 billion in the January-October period of 2012.