MELBOURNE -(Dow Jones)- Australia's North West Shelf Liquefied Natural Gas venture said Friday that it had signed a sales-and-purchase agreement with Osaka Gas to supply about 500,000 million tons of LNG a year from April 2009 for six years.

The venture, operated by Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU), announced in December 2006 that it had signed an initial agreement for the gas.

The six equal participants in the North West Shelf LNG venture are Woodside, BHP Billiton (BHP), BP PLC (BP.LN), Chevron Corp. (CVX) Japan Australia LNG ( MIMI) Pty and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA).

-By Matt Chambers, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-3-9671-4393; matt.chambers@ dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  05-09-08 0400ET
  Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.