Pickens Tells CNBC: Gas Deals May Be Better in U.S. Than China

Texas oilman Boone Pickens is less certain about cutting a deal with China to distribute liquefied natural gas, CNBC’s Becky Quick reports from Beijing.

Pickens, chief executive officer of BP Capital, said better deals may be available in the U.S.

“You’re going to pay the global price for LNG,” Pickens told Quick, who traveled with the billionaire to China this week. “Then you decide if you can make a deal for LNG (and) is this where you want to make the deal? Do you want to bring it in here and put it into their transportation system and build fueling stations? Maybe, but I’m not sure about it. You may be able to make better deals in the United States than you can here.”

Pickens, 79, said he may not make future trips to China.

“I don’t know at my age if I want to be making many more trips from Texas to Beijing or Shanghai,” Pickens said. “Now, Andrew (Littlefair) can do that, but I don’t think I want to. That’s a long way to come to make a deal.”

Littlefair is president and CEO of Clean Energy Fuels.