BP looks good for deal in Fujian province

ENERGY industry giant BP, which has not missed out on a share of business from China’s first gas processing venture in Guangdong province, now also looks a likely winner for an upcoming project in the Fujian province.

In November 2001 a BP-led consortium won the contract to construct the Guangdong receiving terminal and became a 30 per cent stakeholder in the pilot project, shared by Chinese energy company Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (33 per cent), Guangdong entities (31 per cent) and Hong Kong interests (6 per cent).

BP Developments Australia is an equal one-sixth member of the NWS joint venture and will benefit from the 25-year $25 billion supply contract to the terminal.

By securing the contract, the North-West Shelf venture has pipped two other short-listed bidders, one of which was a BP LNG project in Tangguh, West Irian.

However, CNOOC has awarded this venture, shared with Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina, an almost exclusive arrangement to supply China’s next such project in Fujian province, situated just across from Taiwan, on China’s south-eastern coast.

BP has been invited to negotiate a 2.5 million tonnes per annum supply contract for the 2007 start-up Fujian project, 60 per cent held by CNOOC.