China's offshore oil and gas specialist China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) plans to boost its imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 60 million tons a year in 15 years, Reuters reported. The plan to raise imports of cleaner LNG would help reduce reliance on dirty coal-based energy and meet growing demand in coastal regions, the China Daily reported, quoting Fu Chengyu, general manager of CNOOC and chairman of listed arm CNOOC.

China depends on coal for more than 70 percent of its energy needs. CNOOC started up China's first LNG terminal in southern Guangdong province last June that is fed with Australian gas, with annual receiving capacity of 3.7m tons in its first phase.

It is building a second import facility in Fujian province and a third in financial hub Shanghai, which would import LNG from Indonesia and Malaysia respectively. CNOOC also plans to build another two facilities in Ningbo in Zhejiang province and Zhuhai, near Macau, by around 2010.

Last October, the state firm said it signed more framework deals to buy spot LNG cargoes from Western majors Total and Royal Dutch/Shell. But the number of cargoes, time of delivery and prices were not decided.

CNOOC's Fu told the China Daily that the firm was confident its unit CNOOC Ltd. would be able to float A shares on the domestic stock market this year once some technical barriers were overcome.