Petrochina and CNOOC signed agreements to buy a total of 5 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) each year from Qatar, the South China Morning Post reported. The separate deals are each estimated to be worth tens of billions of US dollars. Petrochina agreed to buy 3 million tons of LNG annually for 25 years from the Qatargas 4 project, marking Petrochina’s first binding LNG import contract. The Qatargas 4 project is 70% owned by Qatar Petroleum with the remainder owned by Royal Dutch Shell. CNOOC also signed a heads of agreement to purchase 2 billion tons of LNG annually from Qatar. A heads of agreement is not legally binding and subject to further negotiation.