Buyers Flock to Negotiate U.S. LNG Deals Amid Trump’s Tariff Threat
By Tsvetana Paraskova
click here to read this article at Rigzone.com
*this article was not written by Roseland Oil & Gas
Potential buyers from India, Japan, and Kuwait have already launched talks with U.S. LNG exporters to purchase more of the super-chilled fuel from America amid the tariff threats of President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, quoting sources familiar with the discussions.
Since winning the U.S. presidential election in November, President Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on countries that don’t buy more U.S. energy and with which the U.S. has large trade deficits.
This has prompted energy officials and company executives from countries in Asia and the Middle East to seek talks with U.S. exporters to procure more LNG from America.
Some discussions started shortly after the November 5 election, according to Bloomberg’s anonymous sources.
China, however, hasn’t sought deals as it is pushed away by the tariff threats, the sources said.
China is the world’s biggest importer of LNG.
The second- and third-biggest LNG importers, Japan and South Korea, respectively, are looking to buy more U.S. LNG.
JERA, the largest LNG buyer in Japan, plans to boost purchases from the United States to diversify its supply portfolio, a top company executive told Reuters last week.
Japan is looking to increase its energy security with diverse sources of supply and could face steeper competition from fellow Asian importer South Korea, as well as from Europe.
South Korea, for its part, is looking to import more crude and LNG from the United States to diversify its energy supply and reduce its trade surplus with America, South Korean Energy and Trade Minister, Ahn Duk-geun, said earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Europe this winter has been drawing a lot of spot U.S. LNG cargoes away from Asia, as European prices are higher than those in northeast Asia and Europe scrambles for supply with a colder winter, fast-depleting gas levels in storage, and the end of the Russian gas transit via Ukraine.
By Tsvetana Paraskova
click here to read this article at Rigzone.com
*this article was not written by Roseland Oil & Gas