Singapore — Australia's Woodside Energy and China's ENN Group have agreed to jointly explore opportunities for cooperation in LNG marketing, trading and shipping, a move highlighting the growing role that China's private LNG importers are playing in global LNG.
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Register NowOther potential areas for cooperation include oil and gas exploration and production, liquefaction and regasification projects, and power generation, Woodside said in a statement Monday.
The cooperation agreement was signed at a ceremony in China's Zhoushan between Reinhardt Matisons, Woodside's executive vice president for marketing, trading and shipping, and Cheung Yip Sang, ENN Group's CEO.
"This agreement will allow us to identify and explore options for mutually beneficial business opportunities as we embark on our respective growth phases," Matisons said.
ENN'S GLOBAL AMBITIONS
ENN Group started commercial operations at its Zhoushan LNG terminal in eastern China's Zhejiang province -- China's largest private LNG import facility with an initial capacity of 3 million mt/year -- last week, S&P Global Platts previously reported, and is aiming to grow its market share in China's gas distribution and retailing sector, as well as internationally.
The facility received its first commercial cargo from the Chevron-operated Gorgon LNG plant in Australia aboard the LNG vessel Asia Integrity on October 20, Platts trade flow software cFlow showed Monday.
The Hong Kong-listed company has signed LNG supply agreements with Chevron, Australia's Origin Energy and France's Total.
ENN has also signed an agreement with the local government for the project's second phase, which will raise the terminal's LNG processing capacity to 5 million mt/year. Operations are expected to begin in the first half of 2021.
-- Abache Abreu, abache.abreu@spglobal.com
-- Edited by Irene Tang, newsdesk@spglobal.com