Chinese national oil companies (NOCs) are seeking greater LNG trading capabilities to manage their growing portfolios and domestic LNG demand uncertainty following a series of agreements signed on the sidelines of the annual Gastech conference earlier this month.
PetroChina International, the trading arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. subsidiary PetroChina, signed at least four agreements or memorandums of understanding with several global firms.
These include an agreement for cooperating in natural gas development and market expansion with Norway’s Equinor, one seeking future sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) with Turkey’s Botas, a deal seeking to develop global LNG bunkering with Titan from the Netherlands and another studying a master SPA with Singapore GasCo.
Similarly, state Sinopec’s trading arm, Unipec, signed a global trading agreement with German trader SEFE Securing Energy for Europe to explore joint initiatives in financial risk management, carbon markets and beyond.
With these type of agreements, Chinese NOCs are seeking to build up the knowhow to manage an increasingly complex portfolio needed to navigate the global LNG market, according to analysts.
