China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), along with companies from South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has won contracts worth $9.7 billion to develop a large natural gas field in Turkmenistan.

The consortium, comprising of CNPC, South Korea's LG International Corp and Hyundai Engineering Co, and the UAE's Gulf Oil & Gas Fze and Petrofac International Corp, will jointly develop the South Yolotan gas field, according to Turkmen media.

The Yolotan field is considered to be one of the biggest five natural gas deposits in the world and may hold around 6 trillion cu m of gas.

A CNPC spokesman, however, said yesterday that he was not clear about the deal, but added that Turkmenistan was one of the most important natural gas markets for the company.

China and Turkmenistan signed an agreement in 2007, under which the Central Asian country would export 30 billion cu m of natural gas to China annually for the next 30 years.

Under the deal, CNPC is currently developing natural gas fields in the Bagtyiarlyk area at Amu Darya Right Bank in Turkmenistan. A CNPC executive yesterday told China Daily that the output of natural gas from Bagtyiarlyk would amount to 5 billion cu m by next year.

A natural gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan and China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region started operations earlier this month as part of the agreement. The project is expected to play an important role in China's efforts to increase the use of natural gas to 5 percent of its total energy consumption in 2010, said analysts.

"The new deal will help meet the rising domestic demand for natural gas in the country," said Lin Boqiang, director of China Center for Energy Economics Research of Xiamen University.

Meanwhile, CNPC's listed arm PetroChina Co has won the approval of the Canadian government for its C$1.9 billion ($1.8 billion) bid to buy a stake in two Alberta oil sands projects, which is its biggest North American acquisition.

PetroChina has signed agreements with Athabasca Oil Sands Corp (AOSC) to take a 60 percent stake in the Canadian company's MacKay River and Dover oil sands projects.