Australia's opposition leader in China promoting LNG bid

Australian opposition leader Simon Crean this week joined the latest lobbying effort to secure a $500 million a year liquefied natural gas supply contract from China as the countdown draws near on a final decision, Dow Jones reported Monday.

Australia 's North West Shelf project is one of three international bidders short listed to supply 3 million metric tons a year of LNG to a new receival terminal under construction in Guangdong province in southern China .

China is expected to make an announcement soon on the successful bidder. Australia 's Prime Minister John Howard is scheduled to travel to Beijing in May on a last minute lobbying campaign.

Crean met Monday with China 's Premier Zhu Rongji, a key government supporter of the LNG project which aims to reduce the country's heavy reliance on coal in its energy mix.

Speaking to reporters, Crean said he didn't have a sense of where Australia 's bid stood in relation to the other competitors after his meeting with Zhu. But he said it is important that Australia sends a signal of bipartisan support for the bid to the government in China .

"I'm not going to speculate on where the result goes," he said. "All I'm saying, in the discussions I have had, there is recognition of the strength of our bid."

"It's a very lucrative contract and government and opposition should be doing as much as they can to support that bid," Crean added. "That's what I am up here for and that's why the Prime Minister is coming for - let's hope we are successful."

The Australian project is competing against BP Gas of Indonesia and Qatar 's Ras Laffan Co . for the 20-year supply contract.

The North West Shelf project is a joint venture between Woodside Petroleum Ltd. , ChevronTexaco Corp., Royal Dutch/Shell Group, BHP Billiton Ltd., BP PLC, and Japan Australia LNG.(*)