China National Petroleum Corp and Royal Dutch Shell signed an agreement with Qatar Petroleum to explore for gas in the Arabian Gulf emirate, the second such deal involving a Chinese company in the past year.
The 30 year exploration and production sharing agreement covers Block D, an 8,089 square kilometer area located on land and sea, the companies said in a statement. Shell holds a 75 percent share in the venture, with CNPC holding a 25 percent stake. Qatar Petroleum will take any gas produced.
Peter Voser, Shell’s chief executive officer, declined to say how much the companies would invest in exploring the block.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Doha, Qatar, Zhao Dong, chief financial officer of PetroChina International Investments, said: “We could in the future develop more business in Qatar.”
PetroChina International Investments is a unit of PetroChina Co, itself a unit of CNPC, said at the signing ceremony in the Qatari capital Doha.
Dong added: “We are very interested to have investment here.”
The agreement comes after Cnooc Ltd, China’s biggest offshore oil explorer, signed a separate 25 year agreement with Qatar Petroleum in August to search for gas in a separate area off the Qatari coast.
China aims to increase its imports of liquid natural gas and is in discussions with Qatar as it seeks energy to supply its growing economy.
Qatar, holder of the world’s third largest gas reserves, plans to raise its capacity to produce liquefied gas to 77 million tons a year by the end of this year.
Shell, the largest foreign investor in Qatar, is building the world’s largest gas to liquids plant in the emirate and is a stakeholder in a liquid natural gas production unit.
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