The proposed project is subject to National Development and Reform Commission approval.

CNOOC also signed an agreement with Erdos city in the Inner Mongolian autonomous region to build a 4 billion cubic meter, 40 billion yuan coal gas project, Liu said.

To transport the gas to market, the company aims to build a roughly 1,000 km long pipeline stretching from Inner Mongolia to Shandong province, Shanxi and Tianjin municipality.

Investment in the project is 17 billion yuan, he added. Construction on the pipeline is set to begin before 2012 and is set to be completed in 2013.

Yesterday, CNOOC Ltd announced its acquisition of a one-third stake in the world's major shale gas developer, Chesapeake Energy Corp.

The corporation's Eagle Ford shale gas project in Texas represents the latest move by CNOOC to branch into unconventional fuel exploration.

CNOOC International Ltd, a unit of Hong Kong-listed CNOOC Ltd, will spend around $1 billion to purchase 33.3 percent of Chesapeake's 600,000 oil and natural gas leasehold acres.

"Over the next several decades, the companies plan to develop net unrisked unproved resource potential up to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent," CNOOC said in its statement. As operator of the project, Chesapeake will conduct all leasing, drilling, completion, operations and marketing activities for the project, it said.

Eagle Ford is estimated to have reserves equaling more than 80 billion barrels of oil. The formation is about 50 miles wide and 400 miles long, extending from Texas's southern border to the east, according to the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the oil industry. Eagle Ford delivers shale gas and oil.

Merger and acquisition opportunities will be an "important driving force" for the company's medium- and long-term growth, Fu said this August.

China Daily

(China Daily 10/12/2010 page15)