Venture Global is in talks to sell US liquefied natural gas to more Chinese buyers, Bloomberg reported October 6, which would extend a commercial thaw that began last month after Beijing’s tariffs had frozen the trade for more than a year.
The context is the September 14 sales and purchase agreement in which China Gas Holdings agreed to buy 500,000 tonnes per annum of US LNG from Venture Global for 20 years starting in 2030, bringing China Gas’s long-term offtake with the exporter to 2.5 million tonnes a year. Venture Global followed on October 1 with a 20-year, 1-million-tonne-per-year deal with ConocoPhillips starting in 2030.
China halted imports of US LNG in March 2025 after Beijing’s tariffs on US energy products took effect, diverting US-sourced cargoes elsewhere even as it remained the world’s largest LNG importer. A 15 percent levy on US LNG stayed in place despite a one-year suspension of a broader 24 percent additional tariff. The China Gas deal was announced days before the anticipated meeting between China’s president and President Trump, and new term talks would cement the return of US LNG into Chinese portfolios after the tariff-driven gap.
The new talks were reported as preliminary and the buyers were not identified. Deal volumes, start dates, and pricing were not disclosed.