Woodside Petroleum yesterday signed an outline agreement to sell up to A$45bn ($37.2bn) worth of liquefied natural gas to PetroChina in what would be Australia's biggest ever export contract.

Woodside表示，中石油将成为计划中的西澳洲Browse项目的基础客户，中石油同意每年从该公司购买200万吨至300万吨的液化天然气，期限为15年。

Woodside said China's largest oil and gas group was set to become the foundation customer for its proposed Browse² project in Western Australia after agreeing to purchase 2m to 3m tonnes of LNG a year from it for 15 years.

此项协议是中石油本周签署的第二笔巨额澳大利亚天然气交易，标志着中国政府决定返回液化天然气市场。中石油是中国石油天然气集团公司(China National Petroleum Corp)海外上市的子公司。

The agreement is the second big Australian gas deal signed this week by Petro-China, the overseas-listed subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp, and marks a decisive return to the LNG market by Beijing.

中石油周二与壳牌(Shell)签署了一项初步协议，从其高更(Gorgon³)项目购买天然气，该项目也位于西澳洲海岸线以外。

On Tuesday PetroChina signed a preliminary agreement with Shell to buy gas from its Gorgon development, also off the Western Australian coast.

Woodside拒绝透露Browse交易的条款。但该公司首席财务官马克o查特吉(Mark Chatterji)表示，该合同具备"给澳大利亚带来350亿至450亿澳元收入的潜力。"

Woodside declined to reveal the terms of the Browse deal. But Mark Chatterji, its chief financial officer, said the contract had "the potential to bring revenues in the order of A$35bn to A$45bn into Australia".

分析人士表示，此笔交易的定价可能约为2002年中国签下首笔液化天然气交易时的4倍，当时的价格为2.50美元至2.70美元/百万英国热量单位，交易对象也是澳大利亚。

Analysts⁴ said it was likely to have been priced at about four times the $2.50-$2.70 per million British thermal⁵ units that China agreed to pay in its first LNG deal in 2002, also with Australia.

迄今中国签署的长期液化天然气合同数量远不及5年前的预期，因为全球市场趋紧，使得此类交易在设有上限的国内市场显得不经济。

China has signed far fewer long-term contracts for LNG than it envisioned five years ago, because a tightening⁶ global market made such deals uneconomic in a domestic market with price caps.

Woodside驻华首席代表高承智(George Gilboy)表示，此笔交易标志着"中国以全球市场条件融合到全球市场之中的最新篇章。"

George Gilboy, Woodside's chief China representative, said the deal marked "the latest chapter of China's integration⁷ into global markets on global market terms".

他补充称："这表明中国企业和中国消费者在世界舞台上的竞争能力越来越强。"

He added: "This shows that Chinese companies and Chinese consumers are increasingly able to compete on the world stage."