Woodside Petroleum,?Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, announced yesterday that the $40.4-billion initial accord to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China is no longer valid, Guangzhou Daily reported.

According to the agreement inked in 2007 between Woodside and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil and gas producer, Woodside would sell no more than 3 million tons of LNG to China annually. The contract would last for 20 years and the companies planned to carry out the contract by 2013.

The investment plan was supposed to begin in the mid of 2012 and it would take several years before the LNG could be supplied to China.