China Oilfield Services Limited subsidiary, CNOOC Gas and Power Group will establish a joint venture with Zhuhai Port Power Energy for its sixth domestic natural gas power generation program.

COSL will hold a 75% stake in the joint venture. First-phase investment will total CNY 3.1 billion. Gas supply to the new program will come from its Liwan 3-1 gas field and LNG terminal in Zhuhai Port which will be operational at the end of 2012 and in 2015 respectively.

Liwan gas field is China largest deepwater gas field and it will be jointly explored by the listed company and Husky Energy a company controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Mr Li Kashing. The field will produce natural gas by the end of 2013.

Oilfield Services has five natural gas power generation projects in Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, and Zhejiang provinces which together have installed capacity of 2.21GW. As planned, Oilfield Services will increase its natural gas power generation capacity to 9.77GW by 2015 and 15.7GW by 2020.

An insider from the listed company Shenzhen sales branch said the price of industrial-purpose gas is much higher than that of household gas. The firm has signed long-term supply contracts with several local power generators in Guangdong province including Shenzhen Nanshan Power and Shenzhen Energy Group.

(Sourced from 21st Century Business Herald)