Diverse sources

New projects will benefit from China looking for new LNG sources and investments, especially those in Australia, Southeast Asia and Qatar, Na said.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, CNPC is in discussions with Qatar - which is seeking buyers for a planned output expansion - to purchase LNG under short and long-term agreements.

One of the deals under discussion covers several million tons of annual supply, starting this year through 2022, with the price and volume yet to be finalized, according to Reuters.

Despite growing competition from rival exporters such as Australia, Russia and the United States, Qatar stands among the most competitive suppliers to China due to the scale of its output, geographic proximity and low cost.

CNPC has committed to buy at least 3 million tons of LNG annually from Russia's Yamal LNG project by 2019.

Given its ample supply of shale gas, the US is planning several large-scale export facilities to increase shipments to feed China's increasing demand for the cleaner fuel.