However, exports won’t be hit immediately, so analysts doubt tariffs would lead to a sudden swell in supply or depressed prices.
The worst case scenario would be if companies investing in U.S. export infrastructure cutback on plans due to the uncertain trade environment.
“There’s no way in the current environment that anyone’s going to be signing any deals,” Neil Beveridge, senior oil analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., told the WSJ. “It’s causing a big overhang on what can get done.”
The diminished capital investments would inhibit producers’ future ability to access international markets and potentially limit growth of the U.S. natural gas market as increased shale oil production generates an increasing amount of excess natural gas.
“I hope [the U.S.]will not lose the Chinese market,” Total SA Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanné said at the World Gas conference in June. The U.S. has “a very good place, a game to play in the LNG business. But the market is mainly driven by Asia and by China.”
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