China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) agreed in principle with KazMunaiGas to form an equally-owned joint venture to develop the Urikhtau gas field in Kazakhstan, its company newspaper China Petroleum Daily reported on Wednesday.
Witnessed by the two countries' presidents, the two state-owned firms signed the agreement in Beijing on Tuesday, the report said, Reuters reported.
Production in the field can feed a new Kazakhstan gas pipeline which is being built by the two companies.
The pipeline will be connected to the massive Central Asia-China gas trunk that starts from as far as Turkmenistan and enters China in its northwestern Xinjiang region.
The newspaper report did not mention any investment plan or potential gas reserves in the Urikhtau field.
CNPC, parent of PetroChina, and KazMunaiGas started laying a first-phase, 1,164-kilometre gas line from Bozoi to Shymkent in Kazakhstan in December, which will be extended to Beyneu in Kazakhstan in a second phase later.
The two phases, with total length of 1,475 kilometres, will have gas shipping capacity of 10-15 billion cubic metres a year.