Government-owned Sinopec has agreed to buy two million tonnes of natural gas annually from Papua New Guinea to feed its growing economy:
Earlier this year another big Chinese energy company, PetroChina Limited, secured a similar deal to buy $41bn (£24.8bn) worth of natural gas from Australia… Chinese companies have signed contracts to import oil and gas from the Gulf, Africa, Central Asia and elsewhere.
They are often prepared to consider deals that firms from Western countries might not be so interested in, either because of political considerations, or other logistical difficulties.
Analysts point out that as supplies of oil and gas become more scarce, the Chinese, relatively late entrants into the global effort to secure dwindling resources, often have little choice but to deal with whoever is prepared to talk to them.
See also past CDT posts on Sinopec and PetroChina.
