China's state-owned energy firm Sinopec and QatarEnergy on Saturday signed a cooperation agreement on a 27-year liquified natural gas (LNG) sales and purchase deal as well as equity participation in a joint venture.

According to a statement from Sinopec, under the agreement, QatarEnergy will supply 3 million tonnes of LNG to Sinopec each year from the North Field South (NFS) expansion project.

Under the agreement, QatarEnergy will also transfer a 5 percent interest to Sinopec in a joint venture company that owns the equivalent of 6 million tonnes per annum of LNG production capacity in the NFS project. The agreement was signed in Shanghai at a special ceremony.

Qatar is one of the world's leading LNG exporters. According to Sinopec, the NFS expansion project will build two new LNG production lines with a production capacity of 16 million tonnes per year.