LNG suppliers propose price for China terminal: Report

Foreign firms bidding to supply liquefied natural gas to China's first LNG terminal have offered an average price of around 1.2 yuan (US$0.15) per cubic meter, officials said.

That price is the cost to the terminal at Shekou in the southern province of Guangdong and does not include a gasification fee of 0.2 yuan per cubic meter, said Zhang Guobao, vice minister of the State Development Planning Commission.

Last month, China National Offshore Corp (CNOOC) drew up a shortlist of three potential suppliers for the three million tonne per year LNG terminal. They are Australia LNG Pty Ltd, BP Indonesia, and Qatar's Ras Laffan Co.

"They have proposed a price of 1.2 yuan per cubic meter for LNG reaching Guangdong," Zhang was quoted by Reuters as saying on Tuesday.

A CNOOC-led consortium and BP plan to build the US$616 million LNG terminal in Shekou by 2006.

Zhang said the price proposed by the companies would be competitive in China.

It compared to an average price 1.29 yuan per cubic metre for natural gas transported by a planned west-east pipeline and 1.45 yuan for natural gas pumped from offshore fields in the East China Sea to Shanghai, he said. (US$=8.276 Yuan). (*)