This month, China marks one year since its last import of liquefied gas from the U.S. in the midst of a heated trade war between two world's largest economies. Chinese companies have purchased U.S. LNG from American producers under long-term contracts. They have diverted the fuel to Europe where there has been a surge in demand.

The 'apparent disconnect' between politics and business shows how closely intertwined the?U.S. The U.S. and Chinese energy systems are still intertwined, despite Washington and Beijing's efforts to?decouple? their economies in the race for global influence.

The rapid expansion of the LNG market in recent years has been largely driven by the explosive growth in the United States. In 2023, the U.S. overtook Qatar as the largest LNG exporter.

According to the Center on Global Energy Policy, since 2018, Chinese energy firms including PetroChina, CNOOC, and Unipec, have signed almost 20 LNG supply agreements with U.S. producers like Cheniere Energy, Venture Global, and NextDecade. This amounts to around 25 million tons of LNG per year.

These long-term contracts are usually for 20 to 25 years. They support the financing of LNG projects worth billions of dollars along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

U.S. exports of LNG accounted for nearly 110 million tonnes last year. This is more than one quarter of the global supply. China, the largest LNG importer in the world, purchased 4.3 million tons U.S. LNG by 2024. This represents around 5% of all American exports during that year.

TRADE TENSIONS China imported its last cargo of U.S. LNG in February 2025. This was shortly after both countries had entered into a new round tit-fortat tariffs. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, imposed a tariff of 10% on Chinese imports in February. Beijing responded by imposing a range of countermeasures including a 15% tax on U.S. LNG imported. The two sides then raised reciprocal tariffs over the next months, before agreeing to a "trade pact" in November. China has stopped importing U.S. gas but continues to buy significant volumes of ethane as a feedstock for petrochemicals. In 2025, Chinese ethane imported 'averaged' 325,000 barrels of ethane per day. This accounted for 60% of U.S. total ethane exported. According to Kpler, the last time it imported crude oil from the United States was in April 2025.

Trump has tried to establish U.S. “energy dominance” by increasing domestic oil and natural gas production. He often uses America's vast resources as leverage in trade negotiation. Washington and Beijing have begun preparing for Trump's possible April visit to China, which may help ease trade tensions.

Anne-Sophie Corbeau is a researcher at the Center on Global Energy Policy. She says that for the time being, China will not resume large-scale LNG imports.

Corbeau stated that "Chinese firms can still make money by trading U.S. LNG." "China has access to abundant LNG supplies. This includes growing volumes of LNG from Qatar and Russia.

FLEX BUYING

The majority of U.S. gas supply contracts give buyers the freedom to sell and ship cargoes anywhere around the globe or to resell to third parties, such as trading companies. Many other LNG suppliers such as Qatar often have strict destination clauses.

According to calculations based upon Kpler data, the five largest Chinese buyers of U.S. Liquefied Natural Gas - PetroChina ENN Natural Gas CNOOC Sinochem Sinopec – chartered together 3.3 million metric tons of LNG from U.S. terminals between February and January.

Most of these cargoes went to Europe. PetroChina, for example, chartered 27 cargoes between February 2025 and June 2025. Of these, 23 were shipped to Europe. Two others went to Brazil, while two more went to Bangladesh. According to an analysis, all 10 cargoes chartered for ENN were also delivered to Europe.

Other cargoes may have been sold to other buyers before loading.

China's total LNG exports in 2025 fell by 14% from the year before to 67,000,000 tons. This is due to slower industrial activity, the rapid expansion of renewable energies, increased domestic gas production, and an increase in pipeline gas imports. China began importing LNG in August last year from Russia's Arctic LNG 2 Project, in spite of U.S. sanction.

The political and economic tensions between Beijing, Washington, and other countries will likely continue to be a feature of global trade for many years. China could limit its exposure to U.S. oil.

It is not likely to disappear, but its involvement in U.S. LNG will remain.

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(source: Reuters)