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Qatar seeks LNG sales to China

Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co. (Rasgas) managing director Alex Dodds told Reuters that CNOOC, parent of Hong Kong and New York-listed CNOOC Ltd., was the only Chinese firm they were in discussions with.

“Talks are still at an early stage,” Dodds said on the sidelines of the LNG Supplies for Asian Markets 2005 conference.

Qatar, home to the world’s third-largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran, plans to export 77 million tonnes of the super-cooled and compressed gas by 2012.

China, heavily dependent on coal, is promoting the use of cleaner-burning LNG and is seeking long-term supplies.

Industry experts forecast China will import about 20 million tonnes of LNG a year by 2010, and may build up to nine new LNG terminals.

Rasgas is owned by state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP), ExxonMobil Corp, Itochu Corp. 8001.T and LNG Japan Corporation.

Chinese firms are also in talks to buy LNG from Australia and may buy stakes in production projects, official Chinese media has reported. Over the past two years Australia has signed two LNG supply deals worth around A$55 billion ($43 billion) with China.

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) said last month it had sealed a preliminary deal with to build an LNG project in the coastal province of Zhejiang.

If approved, the Wenzhou project would become CNOOC’s seventh LNG project in the energy-thirsty country and second in Zhejiang, one the provinces worst affected by power shortages over the past two years.