LNG

The Alaska LNG project has emerged as South Korea’s likely first U.S. investment under a $200 billion trade deal, with Seoul signalling a possible announcement in late August or early September.

Bullishness abounds for LNG prices and winter 2026/27 contracts at Europe’s benchmark TTF gas trading hub after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a US toll on shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. For spot prices, the sell-off after the peace memorandum was short-lived.

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for roughly 20% of global LNG supply, will reopen to shipping on Friday, June 19, after the US and Iran formally sign a peace deal to end the war, US President Donald Trump confirmed. Brent crude futures fell 4.1% in early trading on Monday on the news.

China wants to buy more American oil and may lift its 25% tariff on US LNG imports as “energy is the one thing they really need,” President Donald Trump told Fox News. Beijing could unilaterally approve the resumption of US LNG imports, but the country has proven resilient to Qatari supply disruptions in the third month of the Middle East conflict.

Prospects that Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to Beijing could help reinstate direct US LNG imports to China are gaining traction, with LSEG data indicating that three carriers loaded in Louisiana could reach China within a month.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and American companies have announced “billions of dollars” of LNG and gas pipeline-related infrastructure investment across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The key objective of Trump’s ‘Peace Pipeline Framework’ and the broader ‘Three Seas’ supply corridor is to facilitate more US LNG imports.

With more than 12 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of Middle East crude oil and LNG production taken offline due to the Iran war, Russia emerges as the clear winner of global supply shortages. US President Trump’s sanctions relief for Russia’s short-term oil was meant to ease supply disruptions, but had little effect.

Swiss commodity trading house Gunvor is in talks to buy US upstream acreage – notably Baytex Energy assets in the Eagle Ford shale – in a bid to mend relations with the Trump administration, which had fiercely opposed Gunvor’s earlier bid for Lukoil’s foreign assets.

Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has rebuked demands from US President Donald Trump for an outright ban of Russian LNG, saying such a move would be “difficult.” Mitsui and Mitsubishi own stakes in the Sakhalin-2 project and Russian LNG currently cover some 9% of Japan’s total imports.

Donald Trump’s declaration of a ‘new golden age’ in US–Japan relations is shaping a new phase in LNG trade and resource security. Tokyo Gas is in advanced discussions with American LNG suppliers, while JERA locked in several 20-year offtake deals in a bid to ensure prices stability.