China’s huge demand for natural gas has triggered a wave of deals with US fuel exporters, and has strengthened energy trade between the world’s two largest economies, although their relationship is increasingly worrying.

The most recent sale was announced on Monday, when Venture Global LNG, a company that built a pair of LNG export plants in Louisiana, said it had agreed to two contracts to ship 3.5 million tons of fuel to the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The company, the country’s largest importer of LNG.

The CNOOC transaction brings the number of large contracts signed by US exporters and Chinese customers to seven since October. Some contracts lasted for decades. Analysts said that China is expected to surpass Japan this year to become the world’s largest LNG buyer, while data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that next year the U.S.’s LNG export capacity will surpass Australia and Qatar.

From China’s persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang to the suppression of the Hong Kong democratic movement to its military activities near Taiwan, tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated. At the same time, China accused the United States of acting hegemony and trying to create a cold war between major powers.

In contrast, natural gas sales are another sign of the link between the two countries on energy and climate issues.The two governments also ignored expectations of reaching consensus protocol At the COP26 summit held in Glasgow last month, the issue of climate change was resolved, and negotiations on climate change have been conducted Joint release Strategic oil inventories are used to cool prices.

“U.S.-China relations are at a very low level in many respects,” said Jason Boldorf, dean of the Columbia Climate Institute and a former energy official under President Barack Obama. “But energy and climate are a potential bright spot, and despite the tensions and conflicts, there can be more cooperation.”

Venture Capital Global Has signed an agreement In November, 4 million tons of liquefied natural gas were sent to China’s state-owned oil and gas group Sinopec for a period of 20 years, and a short-term agreement totaling 3.5 million tons was signed with its trading subsidiary, United Petrochemical. One of the new contracts with CNOOC is also 20 years.

Mike Sabel, CEO of Venture Global, said that China’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions by replacing coal with natural gas in power plants are behind these agreements. He added that Sinopec’s deal is an opportunity to send a good message before the climate summit.

“China is currently making progress on these new transactions faster than the rest of Asia,” Sabel told the Financial Times. “But when we announce these transactions, other countries will [respond] -And is responding-otherwise China will gain an advantage. “

“We are at an extraordinary moment when the world really needs U.S. LNG, and U.S. LNG is the fastest,” he added.

Chenier Energy, the largest U.S. LNG exporter, is betting that China will support growth. The Houston-based company recently reached a deal totaling 3 million tons per year with buyers including the state-backed Sinochem Group.

“We believe that Asia is the growth driver for our industry’s demand for LNG in the next few decades, and China is the largest piece of it,” Cheniere’s Chief Commercial Officer Anatol Feygin, Tell Financial Times in October.

After stagnation during the Trump administration, transactions and natural gas flows are picking up, when China imposed tariffs on US natural gas in retaliation for its export tariffs.In the context of economic damage, Chinese companies have been seeking a safe supply of natural gas Power squeeze and a Global natural gas prices Jump.

According to trade data compiled by Refinitiv, the United States was China’s second-largest supplier of LNG in the first nine months of this year. It is second only to Australia-another country whose relations with Beijing have been deteriorating.

Nikos Tsafos, director of energy and geopolitics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said: “China gets half of its LNG from Australia and the United States-this can’t make Beijing happy.” “But they have to go. Where the project is, this is where they are now.”

According to a summary of the conversation between the two parties, Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden during the first meeting of leaders last month that he wanted to “strengthen cooperation in the natural gas field.” Chinese Foreign Ministry, Which shows that Beijing regards China as the center of its fuel supply.

However, after the price of domestic natural gas in the United States has recently risen above 6 million British thermal units, reaching the highest level since 2008, the sale of natural gas overseas has become more politically sensitive in the United States.

The influential Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to the chief executives of 11 major natural gas producers, including Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum, asking whether these companies had “considered cutting, suspending, or terminating natural gas exports. Help alleviate the surge in domestic prices”.

Some natural gas executives have Postpone, Describing the export of LNG as an opportunity for the United States to help other countries eliminate coal-fired power plants in order to support natural gas power plants.

Boldorf of the Columbia Climate School said that any reduction in exports would weaken people’s confidence in the United States as a “reliable energy supplier.” He drew parallels with European countries’ concerns about dependence on Russian supplies, which “really have political and geopolitical dimensions for them”.

For the Biden administration, the booming international natural gas trade is also politically embarrassing because it drives the economy to shift away from fossil fuels. Although natural gas emits less carbon dioxide when burned than coal, it is still an important source of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Tsafos of the CSIS think tank, this reflects the “chaotic reality of the energy transition”-the world is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels, and the United States is a major producer of oil and natural gas.

“The truth is, it makes both parties a little uncomfortable,” he said.

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