Just weeks after signing an agreement to take 5% of the upstream reserves of the North West Shelf project for $US320 million, last Friday CNOOC acquired from oil giant BP and partners a 12.5% stake in Indonesia's Tangguh LNG Project for $US275 million.

Under the Australia deal CNOOC's total proven oil and gas reserves rose by 12% while the Indonesia deal meant this would rise to some 30%.

"The acquisition of a material stake in the Tangguh Joint Venture and the reserves and upstream production would expand both the company's natural gas reserves and upstream presence in Indonesia," said CNOOC's chairman and CEO, Wei Liucheng.

"This proposed acquisition, together with our recently announced proposal to acquire an upstream interest in Australia's NWS Gas Project, would be a substantial step in executing our commitment to supplying natural gas to the rapidly growing market in China."

Last week, the Tangguh LNG Project partners also signed a 25-year contract to supply 2.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG to the Fujian gas processing terminal on China's eastern seaboard starting in 2007

After ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, China is looking steer its energy mix away from dirty coal and more toward cleaner natural gas. As a result, the nation of a billion-plus people plans to treble its natural gas consumption by 2010.