CNOOC to alter LNG imports

CNOOC to alter LNG imports

BEIJING: China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the country's dominant producer of offshore oil and gas, said on Monday that it would diversify its import sources for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

"We would like to diversify our import sources," the company's deputy chief economist Zhang Weiping said at a business conference in Bejing.

The firm is looking at Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia as potential areas for LNG, Zhang said, but did not expand on how these would be developed.

Zhang also declined to comment on the progress of CNOOC's acquisition of a 12.5 percent stake in a natural gas project in Western Australia, known as the Gorgon Project, expected to be completed this year.

According to analysts, CNOOC will need as much as 80 to 100 million tons of gas annually by 2015 to supply its terminals and China's increasingly energy-hungry cities.

Last month, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, limited each Chinese province to one LNG terminal.

Zhang said that the stance made little sense.

"China has enough demand for more than one terminal per province," he said.

CNOOC, which is listed in Hong Kong, posted a first half net profit of 11.83 billion yuan (US$1.52 billion), up 68.6 percent, boosted by record oil prices. -- AFP