US energy agency advises against China investment in LNG projects

New York

The US Department of Energy has advised American companies not to allow Chinese companies to invest in US liquefied natural gas export projects, the head of one such venture said on Thursday.

The advice contributed to a lack of lucrative US gas export deals with Chinese companies, said Michael Smith, the chief executive of Freeport LNG. Some existing deals for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, are worth billions of dollars.

Mr Smith said that his privately owned company, which is building an LNG export project on the Texas coast to supply customers in Asia starting in 2018, was encouraged during the federal approval process to avoid inviting Chinese participation in case of a political backlash. The issue of exporting US LNG has revealed a sharp divide between energy companies that want to sell the US commodity o…