PETROCHINA'S high-priced acquisition of a stake in the Browse LNG project cements the company as a significant player in Australia's oil and gas industry and is unlikely to be the company's last purchase here.
The deal is the latest in a long line of acquisitions made by China's state-owned energy giants in recent years, with PetroChina and its rivals Sinopec and CNOOC spending an estimated $US70 billion since 2006 to secure oil and gas assets around the world.

The wave of deals has been driven by Beijing's eagerness to see China shore up potential oil and gas supplies at a time when demand for energy is growing and internal production is declining.

That strategic rationale saw PetroChina join Royal Dutch Shell in acquiring Queensland coal-seam gas player Arrow Energy for $3.4 billion in 2010, and is also a factor behind yesterday's deal.

Simon Powell, the Hong Kong-based head of Asian oil and gas research at CLSA, told The Australian PetroChina had paid a high price for a stake in an asset that was not certain to be developed, given rising costs and an uncertain outlook for LNG markets. "They've paid a whackingly big price for it," he said.

"If we're right, Browse may not actually get up."

Mr Powell has previously voiced concerns about the outlook for Australia's LNG industry, warning that Australian projects are among the most costly in the world.

In addition, he says LNG demand beyond 2015 could weaken as China's unconventional gas production begins to build up and Japan -- the world's biggest buyer of LNG -- potentially re-starts the nuclear power capacity idled since last year's Fukushima disaster.

But yesterday's acquisition is likely to be motivated by much more than just PetroChina's perceived interpretation of Browse's economics.

Firstly, the acquisition will send a strong message of goodwill from PetroChina towards Royal Dutch Shell, which holds a 27 per cent direct interest in Browse and which has been actively working behind the scenes to push its floating LNG technology as a development option for the project.

PetroChina and Shell have forged an increasingly close alliance in recent years, with Shell having pledged to share its entire unconventional gas expertise with PetroChina, and Shell will be happy to see a close ally join it in a project that has historically been wracked by joint-venture partner disagreements. "Shell would be quite pleased about this deal on a number of levels," Mr Powell said.

"One, it makes their stake in Browse potentially worth more, and two, they've got a friend in the consortium that they may not have had before."

It is also worth noting that Sinopec, courtesy of its state-owned status, enjoys considerable access to China's treasury and therefore enjoys significantly lower financing costs than BHP or any of the other partners in Browse.

More broadly, the deal can also be seen as China sending a message to Russia.

The two countries have been deadlocked in negotiations about piping Russian gas into China, with Russia demanding a higher price than China is willing to pay.

China's desire to secure the oil and gas supplies critical to its growth and the comparatively cheap finance available to its energy giants means the spree of big-ticket acquisitions by the likes of PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC won't end soon.