"We will rev up efforts to put the Guangdong LNG program into operation in the middle of next year, and begin the preliminary stages of the LNG programmes in Fujian and Zhejiang within the year," said Fu Chengyu, president of the offshore oil giant, on the CNOOC website.
The CNOOC announcement following plans from national rivals Sinopec and PetroChina to set up similar LNG projects around the country, according to the China Daily newspaper.
PetroChina has proposed to build at least three LNG terminals, at Nantong in Jiangsu province, Tangshan in Hebei and at Dalian in Liaoning.
The Dalian terminal would potentially compete with a terminal that CNOOC is looking at building, also in the Liaoning province. CNOOC has reportedly already signed a framework agreement with the provincial government of Liaoning to build this LNG terminal.
CNOOC currently operates four LNG projects in three coastal provinces and one municipality - Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian and Shanghai.
Fu said CNOOC was targeting a 19% jump in oil and gas turnover in 2005, backed by a larger development budget of US$2.2 billion, an increase of 33%, with 16 projects expected to become operational in 2005-06. He predicted that by 2020 almost 40% of China's natural gas consumption would come from LNG imports.
CNOOC recently teamed up with British giant BP to build the Guangdong LNG project for imports from Australia, with the US$894 million LNG terminal designed to handle 3.7 million tonnes of LNG per annum during the first phase of its construction.
