LNG

One US LNG cargo reached China on 16 July, the first in seventeen months, but it may never be imported. Our tracking shows the Al Fat'h diverted from Huizhou, an ordinary customs berth, to bonded Yangpu, where a cargo can wait, clear customs, or leave again with duty never falling due. Which of those happens is not yet knowable, and Beijing's tariff on US LNG still stands.

Plaquemines, Corpus Christi and Golden Pass drove a sharp rise in US LNG exports, which increased 18.1% year on year to 61.11 MMt in the first half of 2026 on a sailed-date basis.

Greece has warned EU sanctions against the transhipment of Russian LNG to third countries could surrender market share to non-European rivals, as EU envoys postponed talks on the bloc’s 21^st sanctions against Russia to July 23.

Bio-LNG produced from biomethane and liquefied at the Gate terminal in Rotterdam will be supplied by Uniper to Q1 Energy as a lower-emissions fuel for Germany’s heavy-duty transport sector. Uniper will act as owner, importer and distributor of the bio-LNG, managing the full supply chain and claiming the associated greenhouse gas quota credits, while Q1 Energy will handle delivery to service stations based on demand. The bio-LNG is transported in ISO tank containers from Rotterdam to a central storage site in Germany, from where Q1 distributes it to filling stations. In the production process, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide are removed to generate gas equivalent in quality to natural gas. The resulting biomethane can be fed into the gas grid for delivery to any offtake point or used within existing LNG infrastructure. 

China has received its first US LNG cargo in nearly 1.5 years, with the Al Fat’h carrier – loaded at Plaquemines in early June – berthing and discharging at Yangpu LNG terminal in Hainan, southern China. Al Fat'h's charterer is reportedly QatarEnergy LNG, which has a 3 mtpa supply obligation with PetroChina.

State-owned Pakistan LNG Ltd has issued a spot tender seeking a (LNG) cargo for delivery in late July, as Islamabad takes precautions for a longer disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz from its main supplier, Qatar. In addition, Pakistan prepares to buy up to six LNG cargoes in August.

Danish shipyard Fayard and CEO Thomas Andersen has been urged to halt all repair and maintenance work on Russia’s ice-class Arc7 LNG carriers, as servicing carried out in 2026 risks extending the vessels’ operational lifespan beyond the EU’s sanctions deadline.

Security costs rather than freight fundamentals are increasingly determining LNG shipping economics. Owners face "between 6 and 10 million dollars for every single shipment" before vessels enter the Strait of Hormuz, simply to secure additional insurance cover, said Tom Beney, Senior Vice President of Ocean Freight at StoneX.

French oil major TotalEnergies expects all its division to post higher second quarter profits, except LNG, where earnings will fall sharply, with the company blaming “an underperformance in gas trading in a broadly flat to declining European [gas] market.” JP Morgan analysts noted TotalEnergies’ rivals in the UK fared better on LNG trading, indicating Total management might decide to increase its share buyback to $2 billion, from the earlier announced $1.5 billion.

Turkey has started expanding its Marmara Ereğlisi LNG import terminal with construction of a fourth storage tank, state operator BOTAŞ said. The new 160,000-cubic-meter tank will lift total LNG storage capacity to 415,000 cubic meters from 255,000 cubic meters. Works began on July 7, with addition of the fourth storage tank set to increase the terminal’s total capacity by about 63%, once in operation around 2029.