Taiwan agrees to increase US LNG imports

Taiwan has confirmed it will increase US LNG imports to comprise about one-third of its imported supply of the super-chilled fuel in 2026, officials stated on February 5 Reuters reported.

The announcement comes as Taiwan seeks to avoid tariffs being applied from the US. The island possesses a significant trade surplus with Washington and has expressed interest for almost a year in the US’s megaproject in Alaska.

US imports of Taiwanese products hit a record high of $111bn in 2024 as demand skyrocketed for Taiwan’s high-tech products, especially semiconductors.

"We plan to increase purchases of natural gas from the U.S. to 30%-33% this year from about 10% now," Chairman of Taiwan’s state-run CPC Corp, Fang Jeng-zen said.

With Taiwan set to significantly ramp-up imports of LNG from the US, the world’s second and third largest exporters Qatar and Australia are likely to see a major reduction in the sales to the island.

Data from Kpler revealed that in 2025, the two countries each supplied about 23.8mn tonnes of the super-cooled gas, making each country responsible for about one-third of Taiwan’s supply.

For Australia, this will mark a further decline in its share of Taiwan’s LNG imports after its share also fell in 2025 to 33.4%,

For Qatar, it will mark a change in direction as the Gulf nation had previously been seeing a rise in the share of Taiwan’s LNG imports that it supplied, climbing from 25% in 2021 to 33.5% in 2025.

The US has been aggressively courting energy-hungry trade partners in East Asia, including Japan and South Korea, in addition to Taiwan, to agree to import the super-chilled fuel from Glenfarne’s Alaska LNG.

With a price tag of $44bn, the US is desperate to lock in buyers for the megaproject. In September, Japan’s JERA signed a preliminary deal to buy LNG. One month later, Tokyo Gas also inked a letter of intent. Additionally, Thailand’s state-owned oil and gas company PTT has also agreed to a preliminary deal.