August 2, 2023 [LNG Prime]- A unit of LNG giant Shell has signed a terminal use agreement with state-owned China Oil and Gas Pipeline Network (PipeChina).

The two firms signed the medium- and long-term LNG terminal use agreement on July 20, according to a statement by Shell China.

With this, Shell became the first international energy firm to sign such agreement with PipeChina, it said.

Shell China did not reveal any additional information regarding the agreement.

The firm said that this is an “important milestone” for the two companies to cooperate in the LNG field, providing “flexible and reliable” natural gas supplies for the Chinese market.

In February last year, Shell China and PipeChina LNG Terminal Management signed two terminal use agreements.

The deals marked an important step in opening up of PipeChina’s LNG terminals for third party access.

The terminal use deals included Yuedong LNG and Beihai LNG facilities for 2022, PipeChina said.

China launched PipeChina in December 2019 to acquire pipelines and LNG import terminals from the country’s state-owned energy giants.

PipeChina LNG Terminal Management was established about a year later and currently operates seven LNG receiving terminals.

This accounts for about one-third of China’s total LNG receiving capacity.

Also, the firm is building three new LNG terminals in Shandong, Fujian, and Shenzhen.

China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s top importer of LNG in the first half of this year.

China took 33.44 million tonnes of LNG during January-June, up by 7.2 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data by China’s General Administration of Customs.

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