While liquefied natural gas is the main game in the companies’ new relationship, an attractive side deal was QGC gaining a pre-emptive right to participate in the appraisal of BG’s coal seam methane acreage in India.

BG, formerly British Gas, has a long history of oil and gas exploration in India. The company is a producer of oil and conventional gas from the Panna-Murkta and Tapti fields (BG 30%). It also has extensive acreage that is regarded as prospective for CSM.

“They have some major interests there and they were more than happy for us to have in effect a pre-emptive right to look at coal seam gas opportunities in India,” Bryan said. “We will take that up in spades.”

Bryan said now that QGC had established its credentials in its home market, it was ready to venture overseas and the new partnership provided a good platform for doing this.

“It’s a fine deal that provides us with a level of confidence and enables us to look elsewhere,” he said.

QGC is also hoping to work with BG in other countries, according to Bryan.

“We’ve got lots of ideas,” he said.

On Sunday, QGC and BG announced a partnership to build a 3-4 million tonnes per year LNG plant in Queensland, based on feedstock from QGC’s Surat Basin CSM fields.

He said one of the distinctive features of the deal was BG entering into a take-or-pay contract for 100% of the LNG that could be produced for the next 20 years.

This meant QGC did not have search for additional customers and was free to concentrate on developing its CSM operations in Australia and, increasingly, in other countries.