New U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods could make it harder for U.S. liquefied natural gas exporters to tap into China’s booming market and get investors to sink money into Gulf Coast projects, FuelFix.com reports.
The Trump Administration is reportedly set to announce impose tariffs targeting roughly $60 billion in Chinese goods per year, but analysts say the new trade policy could exacerbate U.S. investors’ anxiety over signing long-term LNG contracts with trading partners they already consider unreliable.
“Contracts with Chinese buyers may be off the table for the next wave of projects,” says Katie Bays, an energy investment analyst at Height Capital Markets in Washington D.C.
U.S. LNG exporters have planned about a dozen new multibillion-dollar projects to send shale gas overseas from the Texas and Louisiana coastlines, but most of these haven’t been officially sanctioned yet. So far, only Cheniere Energy, with its cash already coming in from overseas sales, has been able to lock into long-term gas export deals with a buyer in China.
