It is believed that the six Shelf partners, via their marketing arm, Australia LNG, have reached an in-principle agreement with state-owned Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) that should be formalised in Perth in the next few days.

While not as significant as last year's landmark $25 billion LNG sales gas deal with China, the Kogas deal is expected to supplement the China deal and give the Shelf partners the extra tonnage it needs to justify building a fifth LNG train.

South Korea is the world's number two importer of LNG after Japan, with annual imports of 17.5 million tonnes by the end of 2001.