Demand for liquefied natural gas in China has increased by 40 percent year-over-year, according to CNBC.
Increased demand in China has been attributed to multiple factors, including a particularly cold winter and a desire for cleaner energy alternatives in the wake of mass pollution.
"As we saw this winter, demand in Asia and China kind of surprised the market. What we saw was supposed to be a market that might not be hitting supply-demand balance until the mid-2020s," said Kevin Brown, research analyst at Tortoise Capital Advisors. "It's at a place now where we see the balance coming maybe earlier, in the 2020s, pushing people to have to make that second wave of LNG investment."
Last year, the American energy company Chiniere signed a pioneering long-term deal with a Chinese state-owned energy company. Chiniere CEO Jack Fusco said LNG demand in China far outweighed exports to Latin America that year.
"In the U.S., we have a low-cost, abundant, diverse resource base with large growth that we see coming down the pipeline," Mr. Brown told CNBC.