GCL Oil & Natural Gas (GCL) has signed a framework agreement with oil major Royal Dutch Shell for a joint venture (JV) to market and trade liquefied natural gas (LNG) in China.

The JV will source LNG supplies from Shell and import the LNG to new receiving terminals that are being planned, according to published reports.

GCL is a subsidiary of private energy and power firm Golden Concord Holdings, which is registered in Hong Kong.

The LNG division has an integrated model that involves exploration, liquifaction plants, and LNG terminals, tankers and container trucks for distribution to gas stations and other customers.

GCL is planning three receiving terminals in China – the Yantai terminal in Shandong, the Rudong terminal in Jiangsu, which is the planned location for the JV with Shell, and the Maoming in Guangdong, which could involve PetroChina as a partner.

A C$40 billion (US$30 billion) project in British Columbia led by Shell is on track to start exporting LNG to Asia as early as 2024. The shareholders of LNG Canada are Shell (40%), Petronas (25%), PetroChina (15%), Mitsubishi (15%) and Kogas (5%). 

The LNG Canada project will bring natural gas produced in northeastern British Columbia to liquefaction plants in Kitimat via a 650-kilometre pipeline. The five partners in the project will receive LNG proportional to their ownership stakes.

In Ethiopia, a CGL venture has proven reserves of 5 trillion cubic metres of gas and 400 million tons of crude oil.

Last year, Ethiopia and Djibouti signed a deal to build a pipeline to transport Ethiopian gas to a new export terminal in Djibouti.

POLY-GCL Petroleum Investments, a joint venture between state-owned China POLY Group and GCL, has been developing the Calub and Hilala fields since signing a production sharing deal with Ethiopia in 2013.