Key Companies in Major Natural Gas Importing Countries

CNOOC

The CNOOC is China’s largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas and one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. In the first half of 2011 natural gas production increased by 23.5% to 208.2 bcf, compared to 168.6 bcf in the same period in 2010. The realised natural gas prices increased 15.5% from USD 4.26 per mcf to USD 4.92 per mcf. CNOOC has oil and gas assets in Indonesia, Australia, Nigeria, Argentina, the USA and some other countries.

Kogas

Kogas is South Korea’s natural gas corporation and was formed in 1983. In the 2010 financial year Kogas sold 17.5 million tons of city gas and 13.7 million tons of natural gas for power generation. It is now the world’s largest LNG importer and operates three LNG terminals and over 2,739 km of natural gas pipelines. The company is expected to continue to grow its LNG division.
In 2009 Kogas signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with Chevron to import 1.5 million tons of LNG annually from its Gorgon project in Australia every year for fifteen years. Included in this agreement are negotiations for the import of LNG and equities from Chevron’s Wheat Stone project off the coast of Australia.
The organisation also has an agreement signed in 2005 to import 1.5 million of natural gas every year for 20 years from the Sakhalin-2 natural gas field in Russia. Both Kogas and Gazprom are in talks to develop a roadmap for the import of natural gas. If successful, South Korea will import 7.5 million tons of natural gas from Russia starting in 2017.