PETROCHINA Co yesterday signed a deal worth US$37 billion with Woodside Petroleum Ltd to buy liquefied natural gas from offshore Western Australia.
It is the Chinese group's second massive LNG purchase this week.
Under the initial agreement, Woodside will sell two to three million tons of LNG per year from the Browse Basin project to PetroChina for 15 to 20 years, the Perth-based company said.
"The full contract has the potential to bring in revenue in the order of A$35 million-A$45 billion (US$29 billion-US$37 billion) into Australia," Woodside Chief Financial Officer Mark Chatterji said in a statement.
This potentially makes it the largest single export deal by an Australian firm. The agreement is subject to conditions, including a final investment decision on the Browse project and relevant government approvals.
Supply of Browse LNG is set to start between 2013 and 2015.
The announcement came just days after PetroChina signed another LNG deal in Australia.
On Tuesday, PetroChina signed a 20-year supply contract with Royal Dutch Shell Plc for LNG from the Gorgon project in Western Australia. The Shell deal is expected to give a confidence boost to the stalled Gorgon project, led by United States oil major Chevron Corp, on which a final investment decision hasn't been made.
PetroChina will ship the LNG back to China, where the super-cooled gas will be returned to its natural form at its LNG terminals.
PetroChina has to secure supply for its planned three LNG terminals along China's coast.
The China National Offshore Oil Corp started importing LNG to China's first such receiving terminal last year, under a 25-year contract secured in 2002 with the North West Shelf project off Western Australia, also managed by Woodside.
CNOOC's contract price signed then was at near-record low levels. LNG term prices newly agreed upon by PetroChina are believed to have risen sharply amid robust demand in a global sellers' market.
Pricing details of PetroChina's contracts have not been disclosed.
China wants a larger portion of natural gas in its energy consumption to reduce pollution.
Gas is used to supply city residential use and fire power-generating plants.