Chinese company acquires LNG project

China's leading oil and gas producer PetroChina Company agreed to buy BHP Billiton's shares of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Australia at a price of $1.63 billion to further expand its foreign assets. International mining giant BHP announced that it will sell its 8.33% interest in the East Browse Joint Venture and 20% interest in the West Browse Joint Venture located off western Australian, to the Chinese oil and gas company. The deal is expected to be completed by the first half of 2013, the statement said. It will help PetroChina enlarge its overseas energy assets even though it is an LNG project, said Wang Hui, an analyst at chem365.net, an online information provider for the petrochemical industry. She said the company's overseas businesses are currently mainly in Asia. The deal will definitely help the company diversify its businesses by acquiring assets in other parts of the world. PetroChina Chairman Jiang Jiemin said earlier this year that the company will invest at least $60 billion this decade in global oil and natural gas assets to increase its share of overseas output to half of its total by 2020.