The Chinese liquefied natural (LNG) gas importers are seeking to add trading desks in London and Singapore to better manage their growing and diversified supply portfolios in the increasingly volatile global market, Reuters reported.

Officials and traders said to Reuters that about a dozen Chinese companies have been expanding trading teams or adding new desks such as CNOOC and ENN Natiral gas which plan to London offices in addition to utility China Gas Holdings which tend to extend its operations to  Singapore.

This big volume of tradings of the Chinese importers will put them in competition with major companies like Shell, Equinor, bp,and Totalenergies. 

The Chinese importers have also entered into more long-term LNG contracts with Qatar and US suppliers to boost their gas supplies by nearly 50% since late 2022 to more than 40 million metric tons per year (mtpy). 

Additionally, they have plans to add more volumes from those two countries, as well as from Oman, Canada and Mozambique, traders and analysts told Reuters.

Furthermore, Chinese companies are expected to have LNG supplies contracts of more than 100 million tons a year by 2026 which could generate a surplus of up to 8 million tons that year, according to consultancy Poten & Partners, or a deficit of 5 million to 6 million tons based on estimates from pricing agency ICIS.