PetroChina shares shuffled

PetroChina (0857) said its controlling shareholder China National Petroleum Corporation will transfer a 1 percent stake in the company to Sinopec (0386) without any financial consideration to help strengthen collaboration between the two.

The deal involves about 1.8 billion A shares, which will means CNPC's proportion of PetroChina shares will drop to 80.3 percent.

Meanwhile, China's biggest energy groups are diverting more liquefied natural gas away from their languishing home market, offering some relief to desperate buyers suffering supply shortages in other parts of the world. CNOOC (0883) is offering to sell an LNG cargo for November loading from the North West Shelf export project in Australia, according to traders.

That comes after other major shippers including Sinopec and PetroChina sold several LNG shipments from projects in the United States to energy-starved Europe during the year.

Russia has earned 158 billion euros (HK$1.23 trillion) from energy in the first half of this year, and Moscow recently shut off a key pipeline to European customers.