Reuters Finance News, Australia

TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Osaka Gas Co 9532.T said on Friday it has entered into a 6-year purchase agreement starting from April 2009 with the North West Shelf LNG venture off Australia for about 500,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) yearly.

The new contract comes after a 20-year contract to purchase about 790,000 tonnes of LNG a year from the joint-venture ends March 2009.

In addition, Japan's second-largest city gas provider previously entered into a 30-year contract from April 2004 to purchase around 1 million tonnes of LNG a year from the joint-venture.

The six equal partners in the North West Shelf joint-venture are Woodside Petroleum Ltd (ASX: WPL.ax) , BHP Billiton Plc/Ltd (ASX: BHP.ax) BLT.L, Chevron CVX.N, BP Plc BP.L, Royal Dutch Shell Plc RDSa.L RDSb.L and Japan Australia LNG (MiMi) Pty Ltd, which is a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corp 8058.T and Mitsui and Co 8031.T. (Reporting by James Topham)