CHINA has agreed on another decades-long liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal with Qatar in a further move to safeguard its energy security. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) signed a 27-year liquefied natural gas deal with QatarEnergy in Shanghai on Saturday. The move adds to QatarEnergy’s recent flurry of new contracts from both Europe and Asia. The joint venture between QatarEnergy and Sinopec will deliver 3 million tons of LNG per year from the North Field South project to Sinopec’s receiving terminals in China. The agreement with Sinopec follows a similar deal signed in Doha last April, when the Chinese company directly backed an LNG plant in Qatar, one of the world’s top exporters of the super-chilled fuel. This time around, Sinopec will take a 5% interest in a joint venture company with a processing capacity of 6 million tons a year. The agreement also marks the latest in a flurry of deals to lock in gas supply for decades amid intensifying global competition for the fuel, particularly between Europe and Asia. Several European states are now relying more on LNG to meet energy demand after Russia cut most of its pipeline flows to the region. (SD-Agencies) | 