Jiang Jiemin, president of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), confirmed yesterday that the CNPC and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are jointly bidding for Arrow Energy, an Australian coal-bed gas supplier.
"The bid is still in its initial phase and we currently have no timetable," Jiang said.
According to earlier reports from foreign media, the bid from a company jointly owned by Shell and CNPC would give shareholders 4.45 Australian dollars in cash per share, plus a share in a new entity comprising Arrow's international business.
Arrow has reserves of 6,150 petajoules of coal-bed gas, the largest in Australia. Since 2008, producers including BG Group and ConocoPhillips have invested around 18.18 billion U.S. dollars developing coal-bed methane.
Yu Baocai, vice-general manager of the CNPC has also noted that coal-bed gas would play an important role in the company's new energy strategy. The company had a coal-bed gas capacity of 600 million cubic meters by the end of 2009.
"The focuses of the CNPC's overseas business are still the Middle East, as well as the Middle Asian natural gas pipelines," Jiang stressed.
Hedayatollah Khademi, head of Iran's North Oil Drilling Company, said the contract for the construction of the oil rig had been signed with a unit of the CNPC, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"The bid is still in its initial phase and we currently have no timetable," Jiang said.
According to earlier reports from foreign media, the bid from a company jointly owned by Shell and CNPC would give shareholders 4.45 Australian dollars in cash per share, plus a share in a new entity comprising Arrow's international business.
Arrow has reserves of 6,150 petajoules of coal-bed gas, the largest in Australia. Since 2008, producers including BG Group and ConocoPhillips have invested around 18.18 billion U.S. dollars developing coal-bed methane.
Yu Baocai, vice-general manager of the CNPC has also noted that coal-bed gas would play an important role in the company's new energy strategy. The company had a coal-bed gas capacity of 600 million cubic meters by the end of 2009.
"The focuses of the CNPC's overseas business are still the Middle East, as well as the Middle Asian natural gas pipelines," Jiang stressed.
Hedayatollah Khademi, head of Iran's North Oil Drilling Company, said the contract for the construction of the oil rig had been signed with a unit of the CNPC, the official IRNA news agency reported.
