BG Group has signed a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sales contract with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, (CNOOC), concluding negotiations announced in May 2009 for the supply of 3.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG over a 20-year period.

Under the terms of the sales contract, CNOOC will be supplied with LNG manufactured at the Queensland Curtis LNG ("QCLNG") facility on Curtis Island, near Gladstone in Queensland, Australia. Additionally, BG Group may also supply CNOOC from the Group's global LNG portfolio. The QCLNG facility is being developed by BG Group's wholly owned Australian subsidiary, QGC Pty Limited ("QGC") and will be supplied with coal seam gas from QGC's extensive acreage in the Surat Basin. BG Group expects to sanction QCLNG this year upon receipt of Queensland and Australian government environmental approvals, and the plant is planned to come onstream by 2014.

The BG Group-CNOOC LNG sales agreement is one of the largest LNG contracts in Australia and was signed on 24 March 2010 in Beijing by the CNOOC President Fu Chengyu and BG Group Chief Executive Frank Chapman. It is the world's first fully-termed sale and purchase agreement for the supply of LNG from coal seam gas, and marks the first sale of LNG from coal seam gas into China, the fastest-growing gas market in the world.

Tags: BG Group, CNOOC Limited