How gas is helping warm China’s trade ties with the US
Increased shipments of the fuel to the mainland one of the main breakthroughs in a trade deal agreed after two nations’ presidents met last month in Florida
After an executive from US liquefied natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy spoke to a few hundred people at a conference in Beijing last week, the first question from the audience turned out to be an invitation to visit one of China’s biggest energy firms and a main LNG buyer, the state-owned giant known as Sinopec.
“We are very happy to always come to your office, Mr Chen Bo, and discuss the supply of US LNG to China,” Andrew Walker said in front of an amused audience, responding to the chief of Sinopec’s trading arm.
The exchange highlighted a budding relationship between US gas sellers and Chinese buyers after an agreement struck this month by the Trump administration and President Xi Jinping’s government welcomed the Asian country’s investments and purchases of American gas.
“The trade deal paves the way for Chinese support into US LNG in both existing and potential future projects,” said Kerry Anne Shanks, a Singapore-based analyst at Wood Mackenzie. That includes immediate LNG sales or signing long-term contracts to underpin financing of new plants.
Gas is poised to play a larger role in US-China trade relations as the Trump administration works to trim a trade deficit and as the world’s largest energy consumer seeks to boost the share of natural gas in its energy mix and lower prices that last year were the world’s highest.
