China Resells Up to 19 Million Tons of LNG and Competes With Suppliers
The IEEFA documents China's shift from the world's largest LNG buyer to a reseller of surplus cargoes on the spot market.
China resold between 17 and 19 million tons (Mt) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2025, after its imports fell from a peak of 79 Mt in 2021 to 66 Mt in 2025, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) published on September 24, 2026.
The shift is contractual: Chinese buyers signed nearly 60 Mt in new supply agreements between 2021 and 2023 and now manage that surplus amid stagnant domestic demand. S&P Global Commodity Insights reported that China resumed commercial LNG re-exports in July 2026: the Maran Gas Posidonia loaded 67,695 metric tons on July 2 at CNOOC's Binhai terminal and discharged them on July 10 in Chita, Japan. S&P Global recorded 12 reloads in March, a record.
The effect is measured in the Asian spot market. S&P Global put the Platts JKM assessment for September deliveries at 21.602 USD/MMBtu on July 21, against 17 USD/MMBtu on July 7, while LNG sold by truck at Chinese coastal terminals averaged 5,923 yuan per ton. Traders estimated margins above 3 USD/MMBtu by placing those volumes in the spot market instead of domestically. The main destinations for China's 2025 resales were South Korea, Japan and the Netherlands, according to IEEFA.
IEEFA estimates that Chinese companies earned USD 4.6 billion reselling LNG of U.S. and Australian origin between 2021 and June 2026, and that 8.4 Mt traveled on vessels chartered by Chinese companies. The report projects contracts for 114 Mt in 2028 and a surplus above 47 Mt in the early 2030s. CNOOC and PetroChina channel the volume into freight and marine fuel, with the Yangpu free-trade terminal in Hainan as a re-export hub.
Mexico enters that same basin from a different position. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that Sempra began exports from Phase 1 of Energía Costa Azul in Baja California, with the first cargo on July 8, 2026 and a nominal capacity of 0.4 Bcf/d that triples the country's LNG export capacity. The Department of Energy authorized 0.50 Bcf/d to countries with free trade agreements and 0.44 Bcf/d to the rest.
What to watch: the proposed Phase 2 of Costa Azul, at 1.6 Bcf/d and about 12 Mtpa, and the pace of Chinese reloads to Asia.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.
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This article was drafted with AI assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.