China's Sinopec Corp has struck its first deal to purchase liquefied natural gas, agreeing to buy 2 million tonnes per year for 20 years from ExxonMobil's Papua New Guinea project, Sinopec Group said on Thursday.
The gas will go to a planned LNG terminal at Qingdao in Shandong province, which will have an annual capacity of 3 million tonnes in its first phase, rising to 5-6 million tonnes a year in a later second phase, the state-owned parent company, Sinopec Group, said on its website www.sinopecgroup.com.cn. It did not give a detailed agenda for the start-up of the Qingdao LNG terminal or say when the sales would begin.