State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC,
Under the agreement, CPC will purchase 3 million tonnes of LNG annually from the Middle East country for 25 years starting in 2008, the statement said.
The deal was clinched by CPC chairman Kuo Chin-tsai (郭進財) and Yousef Hussein Kamal, Qatar's minister of finance and chairman of Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co Limited II (RasGas-II), in Qatar's capital of Doha.
Of that amount, 1.7 million tonnes will go to state-run Taiwan Power Co's (台電) 4,200mw Ta-Tan Power Plant in northern Taiwan, while the remainder would be used by CPC for its own needs, the statement said.
RasGas-II, a joint venture of state-owned Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil RasGas, started to sell LNG in 1999. It is expected to surpass Indonesia to become the world's largest LNG supplier.
CPC imports 6 million tonnes of LNG annually. It currently has long-term LNG contracts with Indonesia and Malaysia.
The deal with Qatar was attractive because the country has more LNG supplies than others and its LNG is cheaper as well.
CPC is also in talks about investing in the Abu Dhabi petrochemical processing zone of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company said on Tuesday.
"The seven-member delegation flew to UAE last Friday for a week-long visit. The group is discussing cross-investment with UAE's International Petroleum Investment Co [IPIC]," a CPC official said on condition of anonymity.
"That is, either CPC and other Taiwanese firms will invest in the Abu Dhabi petrochemical processing zone, or IPIC will invest in the petrochemical zone that CPC plans to build in Taiwan," she said.
The CPC and other Taiwanese petrochemical firms reportedly plan to invest US$6 billion in the Abu Dhabi zone, the largest in the world.
Plans for the zone call for it to host an oil refinery, naptha cracker and plastics factories.
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