China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and French refiner Total SA have agreed to jointly develop a gas field in north-west China, state media said on Saturday.
The two signed an agreement to develop the Sulige gas field in the Ordos Basin that industry sources were quoted as saying had gas reserves of up to 602.6 billion cubic metres.
"It is only a set of framework agreements and more follow-up projects are still under discussion," the China Daily quoted CNPC spokesman Liu Weijiang as saying.
The newspaper gave no dollar figure for the deal. The two also agreed to set up an oil and gas reserve exploration partnership in an unnamed third country, the report said without elaborating.
China aims to have 8 percent of its energy come from natural gas by 2010, compared with 3 percent at present. The world's second-largest energy consumer and its fastest growing major economy, China is keen to develop gas fields in the face of surging demand and declining domestic oil reserves.
In May, PetroChina - whose parent is CNPC - and Royal Dutch/Shell agreed to develop China's Changbei natural gas field in a project that aims to deliver 3 billion cubic metres per year to domestic markets by 2008.