She said the US has already charted plans to export more LNG.

"The US is scheduled to start LNG exports in 2015, and this will affect the international LNG prices ... It is difficult for China to import LNG from the US because China is not within the US free trade agreement. However, the newly signed agreement paves the way for future deals," she said.

On Wednesday, China's largest offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd announced that it has signed a 10.1 billion yuan ($1.63 billion) deal to build equipment for an LNG project in Siberia.

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CMESC, Korean firm in deal for LNG

China Merchants Energy Shipping Co Ltd said on Thursday it has signed a series of contracts with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co for construction and charter of six liquefied natural gas carriers with a total value of $1.9 billion.

The deal follows China Shipping Development Co's announcement earlier this week that it was ordering three LNG carriers from the same South Korean ship manufacturer for the Yamal LNG project in Russia.

The LNG industry in China, comprising LNG terminals, shipbuilding and trading businesses, is seeing a boom on the back of rising natural gas use and imports.

The new deal was signed by CMESC's 50-percent controlled subsidiary China LNG Shipping and six singlevessel joint ventures it established with Teekay LNG Partners LP, the world's third-largest independent owner of LNG carriers.

The six 173,000-cubic-meter LNG carriers will be built at DSME with deliveries scheduled between the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2020. As China's shipping industry was suffering from overcapacity during the past two years, many companies including CMESC lost money last year.

However, the company announced a profit of 250 million yuan ($40.36 million) for the first half of this year. It attributed profits to the warming shipping market.