Under the 20-year contract, BG will have an exclusive licence to import up to 3 million tonnes of LNG per annum into Singapore from early 2012.

The company will also have a monopoly on the sale of regassified LNG within Singapore for the period of the contract.

Singapore expects to initially import 0.8-1.2MMt per annum of LNG by 2012 through its planned import terminal on Jurong Island, building up to 3.0MMtpa by 2018.

It also has capacity to expand the terminal in stages to 6MMtpa and ultimately to 10MMtpa in the mid-2020s, with the additional LNG to be used to establish a trade hub for cargoes of spot LNG.

Singapore's Energy Market Authority and BG Broup declined to reveal price details.

According to Qatar's English-language newspaper, The Peninsula, BG would source LNG from its global portfolio of LNG projects, including from Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, and future Australian supplies.

The news comes two months after BG and CSM producer Queensland Gas Company announced they had joined forces to develop a 3-4MMtpa CSM-to-LNG project in Gladstone, Queensland.

BG will buy and market all LNG produced by the plant.