Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, is seen near Port Arthur, Texas, on June 23, 2025. [REUTERS/Joel Angel Juarez/File Photo]

The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker to sail directly from the United States to China in Donald Trump's second term has departed, Reuters reported on the 12th (local time).

Reuters analyzed that this could be a sign of thawing energy cooperation between the two countries ahead of President Trump's summit with President Xi Jinping in China from the 13th to the 15th.

According to data from financial information firm LSEG, cited by Reuters, three LNG tankers departed from U.S. LNG export facilities in Louisiana last week and are scheduled to arrive at the Port of Tianjin in China around June 15-20.

The 'Um Al Hunuya' departed from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass export facility on May 5, while the 'Al Sailiya' and 'Idhsa' departed from Venture Global's Plaquemines facility on May 8, respectively.

Cheniere Energy and Venture Global are the first and second largest LNG producers in the U.S., respectively.

Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, is seen near Port Arthur, Texas, on June 23, 2025. [REUTERS/Joel Angel Juarez/File Photo]

If these vessels arrive in China as scheduled, it will be the first direct voyage of an LNG tanker from the United States to China in over a year and four months.

The most recent direct voyage was the 'Mulan' tanker, which loaded LNG from Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi facility in Texas in December 2024, before the start of Trump's second term, and arrived in China in February 2025.

In addition to the Mulan, three other LNG tankers had direct voyages from the U.S. to China arriving in 2025, but they departed from the U.S. in November or December 2024, and their arrival in China was before noon on January 20, 2025, when Trump's second term began.

Furthermore, two LNG tankers that departed from the U.S. in September 2025 and February 2026, respectively, supplied relatively small quantities of U.S. LNG to China, but these were not direct voyages, and most of the cargo was offloaded in Bangladesh before arriving in China.

In the past year, several Chinese companies have entered into LNG purchase agreements with U.S. producers but have resold the cargo to buyers in other countries rather than bringing it into China.

This was primarily driven by trade disputes between the two countries and the opportunity to profit from rising global LNG prices.

In particular, the market disruptions triggered by the war in Iran in recent months allowed Chinese buyers to sell U.S. LNG for higher margins.

Analysts at the consulting firm EBW Analytics Group pointed out in a recent report that China has become increasingly reliant on pipeline gas imports from Russia and Central Asia.

Erica Downs, a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, predicted that while U.S. LNG imports could become an attractive option again as China depletes its inventories, the country would still prefer domestic gas production and cheaper pipeline imports, analyzing, "Beijing probably views the U.S. as an unreliable trading partner."

The United States is the world's largest gas exporter, and China is the world's largest gas importer.

During the Biden administration, before the start of Trump's second term, U.S. LNG supplies to China were much more active.

Reuters, citing data from the U.S. Department of Energy, explained that based on departure dates, 131 U.S. cargo ships supplied LNG to China in 2021, 30 in 2022, 52 in 2023, and 64 in 2024.

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data since 2000, cited by Reuters, the U.S. began supplying LNG to China in 2011 or earlier.

Reuters reported that it had requested comment from the White House regarding this article, but received no response.