广播听力: PetroChina Will Buy 50% of Encana's Cutbank Stake for $5.4 Billion

China's largest oil and gas producer, PetroChina, has now agreed to buy half of a shale gas project from Canada's Encana, in a deal worth 5.4 billion US dollars.

This is by far the largest Chinese investment in a foreign gas asset.

The agreement, if it goes through, will allow PetroChina to acquire the business assets of Encana's Cutbank Ridge projects in the Rockey Mountains in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

The assets cover 1.3 million acres of land, with a gas processing capacity of about 700 million cubic feet per day.

The deal marks China's third acquisition of a shale gas project in North America, after CNOOC's twin deals with U.S. firm Chesapeake Energy.

The transaction still requires the approval of the Chinese and Canadian authorities.

For more on the deal, we