Qatar Petroleum (QP) on behalf of the Government of the State of Qatar has signed a new Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) with Shell and PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina) for Qatar Block D. The agreement was signed in Doha by His Excellency Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry, Peter Voser, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell plc, and Mr. Zhao Dong, Chief Financial Officer of PetroChina International Investment Company Limited. Under the agreement, the partners will jointly explore for natural gas in Block D. Block D covers an area of 8,089 square kilometres onshore and offshore Qatar and is located close to Ras Laffan. The Block D concession is for pre-Khuff geological intervals.