Doha: PetroChina Co, the country's largest oil and gas producer, has signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell and Qatar Petroleum to explore for natural gas in the Middle Eastern country, in so doing China is likely to surpass Japan as Qatar's biggest gas client.
Under a 30-year exploration and production sharing agreement, the partners will jointly explore for natural gas in an area covering 8,089 square kilometers. Shell will hold a 75 percent stake in the project and PetroChina the remaining 25 percent, PetroChina said in a statement.
Shell and PetroChina will produce natural gas under Qatar Petroleum's supervision. According to the agreement the Qatari company will be the purchaser of any gas produced, said the statement.
Abdullah al-Attiyah, the energy minister, said the Gulf state already sold 5m tonnes of LNG to China. China will now overtake Japan, which buys about 8m tonnes a year, and become Qatar's main gas customer.
Attiyah said Qatar was on schedule to increase its capacity from 62m tonnes to 77m by the end of September. "This shows, we believe, that gas demand is growing," he said. [19/05/10]
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