PetroChina Inks Its Biggest Qatar LNG Deal as U.S. Trade at Risk

[50 shades of black + 254]

PetroChina Co. signed a deal with Qatargas Operating Co. to purchase 3.4 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually, the Chinese company’s biggest supply deal, amid a brewing trade war with the U.S. that threatens to stifle the Asian nation’s purchases of American fuel. Under the 22-year agreement, Qatargas will supply LNG from the Qatargas 2 project, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SA, state-controlled Qatargas said in a statement Monday. The first cargo will be delivered later this month. The contract is PetroChina’s largest by annual volume, according to data compiled by Bloomberg NEF. China’s LNG imports have surged 35 percent in the first eight months of this year, helping it overtake Japan as the world’s biggest buyer of natural gas, amid a drive by President Xi Jinping’s government to boost use of the fuel. The deal comes as President Donald Trump’s trade war threatens to snuff out the budding energy relationship between the U.S. and China.

[franco + 96]

Qatar is under isolation of his neighbours, but, at the same time expansion in Europe and Asia is continuing.

[damirUSBiH + 327]

Yep. No just China today or Germany last week.... Qatar LNG deal committed Pakistan to buy 3.75 mm metric tons annually over 15 years. The oil linked price was toughly negotiated. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

You do have to wonder what the settlement currency is going to be.  US Dollars?

[Pavel + 384]

The size of the deal is more than twice of all US LNG export to China in 2017. In 2017, China imported 1.5 MPTA from US LNG, on spot basis. This long term deal is about 225% of that total import volume.

[Petar + 76]

It seems to me "Qatar is back in the game"... 

[John Foote + 1,135]

Qatar never left. And Iran’s current challenges help them. Qatar started fundamentally expanding their spend to increase production capacities a few years ago.