OREANDA-NEWS. January 20, 2014. State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), leader of the country's liquefied natural gas import business, plans another receiving terminal in the southeastern province of Fujian, a company official said.

China, the world's top energy user but fourth-largest consumer of gas, is rapidly boosting supply of the cleaner-burning fuel by speeding up domestic exploration and lifting imports, both of pipelined gas and in super-chilled form shipped in tankers.

The project in Fujian's Zhangzhou city, estimated to cost 6.7 billion yuan (USD1.1 billion), will have an annual capacity of 3 million tonnes in its first phase, the company says in its environmental assessment report, seen by Reuters.

"The project has finished the preliminary work and is now waiting for the final approval from Beijing to start construction," said the company official.

It was not immediately clear from where CNOOC would source the gas. The company already operates six receiving terminals along the east coast including the most recent, a floating terminal, off the northern city of Tianjin.

CNOOC has started the 600-mu (40-hectare) sea reclamation effort for the 52-hectare project, which could cost the company another 660 million yuan, domestic media reported late in December.

The project, including a port to dock 260,000 cubic-meter tankers and three storage facilities of 160,000 cubic meters each, is expected to start operation in 2017, the media said.