Oil giant PetroChina has teamed up with Royal Dutch Shell For A $3.3
billion tilt at Australian coal seam gas producer Arrow Energy that
would give China a firm footing in Gladstone's burgeoning liquefied
natural gas (LNG) industry.
It could also delay Queensland's first LNG exports because, it is
understood, the two oil majors do not want to go through with Arrow's
planned purchase of LNG Limited's smaller but more advanced Fisherman's
Landing project. They also do not want to supply it with gas.
PetroChina
is the second Chinese state-owned company to try to take a stake in
Queensland's vast coal seam gas (CSG) reserves, after China National Offshore Oil Corp
last year struck an off-take and equity stake agreement with BG Group's
Gladstone LNG project.
The move, which put a rocket under CSG
shares Monday, continues the rapid acquisition of Australia's CSG
reserves by global energy giants, who if this deal goes ahead, will
have a controlling or equal stake in three of the four big LNG projects
planned for Gladstone and their gas reserves.
The other three projects are owned by BG, Origin/ConocoPhillips and Santos/Petronas.
If
the takeover goes ahead, Shell would also sell PetroChina half its
existing Queensland CSG assets, which consist of a planned LNG project
on Curtis Island and a 30 per cent stake in Arrow's reserves, so the
pair would have a 50-50 joint venture.
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