This is why China signed that US$400 billion with Russia to import natural gas from eventually eastern Siberia, where there are estimates of gigantic natural gas deposits yet to be found. There may be enough natural gas in eastern Siberia to fuel Chinese demand for hundreds of years. And Russia could put a big "carrot" in front of the Japanese to buy natural gas from the large natural gas fields on Sakhalin Island in exchange for the four westernmost of the Kuril Islands.
Here’s the good news that a Donald Trump-like administration could finesse.
We can have NG/LNG infrastructure for massive exports up and running in 3 to 5 years and we can dominate the market because of the low cost of our NG. We can also have foreign buyers make the investment in liquefaction plants in Long Beach and Houston (I know for a fact that S. Korea will put up all the investment in port infrastructure).
Competitors like the Italians and other Euro interests in the NG find in the Med will have huge environmental restrictions and huge time development to get at their find and make it competitive.
As for Russia signing agreements, Russia is not a reliable business partner. Their contracts don’t mean sh*t because there is no Rule of Law to enforce a Russian contract. The Euros know this first-hand. Basically Russia is comprised of 3 mafia-like families that control all O&G in Russia of which Putin heads one of the families. The families have a truce-like standing agreement with each other but that ‘truce’ can flip on a dime. Nobody likes doing business with Russia.