The chairman of CNOOC, which is to take a 12.5% stake in the project along with a possible 100 million tonnes of LNG over a 25 year period, cast doubt on the proposed equity structure of the venture as well as what he described as "technical issues".

Fu Chengyu was quoted as saying the existing Gorgon shareholders were still negotiating stakes in the project, which has yet to receive environmental approval for its carbon dioxide sequestration proposal.

He was also reported to have said there were other technical issues which needed to be fixed before talks could proceed.

But a ChevronTexaco spokesman said the company was confident it could finalise the negotiations soon.

“We are still having those negotiations with CNOOC and they are confidential,” spokesman Peter Coghlan was reported as saying. “We expect to finalise them soon.”

The Gorgon partners are ChevronTexaco (57.14%), ExxonMobil (28.57%) and Shell (14.28%).