U.S.-China trade row to roil LNG market, help big oil, utilities

By Elchin Mammadov, Bloomberg Intelligence

U.S.-China trade war to shake LNG market

Escalating trade tensions, with Beijing imposing higher tariffs on LNG imported from the U.S., could increase Chinese importers' costs and favor commodity traders, portfolio players and some European utilities. Yet the global gas market is likely to optimize flows in response to China increasing import tariffs on U.S. LNG, we believe. Though tariffs won't affect profit for the owners of existing U.S. liquefaction facilities, until the trade tensions ease it's likely to be harder for the developers of new U.S. LNG-export projects to sign long-term offtake agreements with Chinese buyers (accounting for the main growth globally).