Reply #26: Australia promises ’reliable supply’ to energy-hungry China

[Ghost Dog]

SHENZHEN — Australian Prime Minister John Howard, keen to boost ties with an increasingly powerful neighbour, promised China yesterday that his country would be a reliable supplier of the energy China needs to fuel growth.

Speaking at the unveiling of China’s first receiving terminal for liquefied natural gas, which will get its supplies from Australia’s North West Shelf project under a $19bn deal, he drew an unspoken comparison with regional competitors for China’s investment.

“Australia is a stable, reliable, competitive supplier of energy. We deliver our commodities on time, we deliver them safely, we deliver them according to the prearranged, agreed price,” Howard told journalists on his ninth visit to China.

Beijing has been arguing with Indonesia over the cost of gas for a second terminal in Fujian province, because of steep rises in global markets since the two agreed on an initial price.

The maiden terminal in the southern city of Shenzhen — controlled by the state parent of listed CNOOC and indirectly invested in by BP — will supply the south of China and Hong Kong and is the first of about a dozen proposed or approved terminals along the coast.

China wants to more than double the use of gas by 2010, hoping to lessen reliance on oil from politically volatile areas, and on dirty-burning coal.

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