China tariffs create headache for next wave of US natural gas export projects

August 9, 2018

  • A second wave of U.S. liquefied natural gas projects is awaiting investment decisions that hinge on lining up long-term contracts with gas importers.
  • China's threat to slap a 25 percent tariff on U.S. LNG could complicate financing for some of the projects.
  • Beijing is taking aim at President Trump's energy dominance agenda to bring his administration back to the negotiating table, one analyst says.
China's threat to slap tariffs on U.S. natural gas exports is injecting uncertainty into a construction boom for the multibillion dollar facilities that ship American shale gas around the world.
By the end of next year, six facilities in the United States are expected to be exporting liquefied natural gas. During that same period, several companies are slated to decide whether they'll move forward with another wave of American LNG export terminals.
Many of those projects are looking to line up buyers in China, which is poised to surpass Japan as the world's largest consumer of LNG, a form of natural gas super-chilled to its liquid form for export by sea.
But Beijing cast doubt on the prospect of signing deals with the developers last week when it threatened to slap a 25-percent tariff on U.S. goods including LNG, firing back as the Trump administration mulled hiking tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods... 

Read entire article at CNBC
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